New London, CT
Est. and built 1909
Tower is 58 fett high
This is one of your Lighthouse Guide's favorites in all of New England. And what
a strange sight to see, like Jonathan Swift's flying island of Laputa rising from
the water and lifting into the sky.
Jeremy's Lighthouse Guide #12
This 58-foot-tall lighthouse owes its distinctive French Second Empire styling
to wealthy neighbors who wanted a structure in keeping with the elegance of their
own homes. The stately brick building with its mansard roof makes a striking picture
near the entrance to New London Harbor at the extreme eastern end of Long Island
Sound.
The best-known part of this station's lore is the infamous spectre known as "Ernie."
It's been claimed that in the 1920s a keeper learned that his wife had run off
with the captain of the Block Island ferry. Distraught, the keeper jumped from
the roof of the lighthouse to his death, the story goes. Since then, doors have
been known to open and close mysteriously, decks have swabbed themselves, televisions
have turned themselves off, and the fog horn seems to turn on and off for no reason.
Securely tied boats have mysteriously been set adrift.
Coast Guard crews lived at the lighthouse from 1939 until its automation in 1987.
The Coasties worked in three-man shifts, with three weeks at the lighthouse followed
by six days on shore. Somebody once explained why there were always three men
at the lighthouse at one time -- if two men had a fight, there had to be a third
to break it up. The crewmen were occasionally driven to distraction by the smells
of freshly mown lawns and barbecues wafting from the mainland, as well as by the
distant sight of young women on a nearby beach.
Today the lighthouse is leased to the New London Ledge Lighthouse Foundation.
This group has done much restoration of the building's interior. The plan is to
turn the building into a combination museum and bed and breakfast. You can see
the lighthouse from the shores of New London and Groton, and in the summer months
Project Oceanology in Groton runs tours of the lighthouse – see their web site.
Click for a complete HISTORY of this lighthouse.
Copyright 2004 by Jeremy D'Entremont,New England Lighthouses
Photos are the property of the author and may not be used without permission.
Photos above from Jeremy D'Entremont.
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