Long Island has seen a myriad of uses; it’s been home to a resort hotel, military fortifications, cottages occupied by Portuguese fishermen, a hospital, and even a missile base. In 1818, a committee of the Boston Marine Society noted the large number of vessels that passed close by Long Island as they entered the harbor. Congress subsequently appropriated $11,500 for a lighthouse in 1819.

The island’s first lighthouse was a stone tower, 20 feet tall, built high on the hill at Long Island Head. The first keeper was Jonathan Lawrence, a local man who had served in the War of 1812. At the Battle of Fort Erie in August 1814, Lawrence was struck by a bullet that grazed his head, entered his shoulder, and exited through his back. He was one of many wounded veterans of various wars who received lightkeeping appointments as favors.

By the 1840s, the wooden parts of the tower were decayed and the glass was cracked. The entire tower, which had a shallow foundation, seemed to have moved as the ground froze and thawed. A new lighthouse was built in the following year – the first cast-iron lighthouse in the United States.

Another new cast-iron lighthouse was built in 1881 along with a new wood-frame keeper's house. The tower was one of the typical ones built at many New England locations around that time, with several cylinders bolted together.

A Boston Globe article in February 1895 described a tugboat visit to Long Island Head to deliver newspapers to Keeper John B. Carter during a severe freeze that slowed harbor traffic. The keeper told his visitors, "I have a cow and some fowl and I don’t care how hard it blows. My daughter has her piano, and we manage to take lots of comfort here, gale or no gale."

The island’s Fort Strong was enlarged around 1900, and it was decided that the light station should be relocated to a position where it would not be "exposed to injury by the firing of guns in the new sea coast battery." A 52-foot cylindrical brick lighthouse was built in the new location. The keeper’s house, oil house, and other outbuildings were moved rather than rebuilt.

The lighthouse remains an active aid to navigation. It received a major renovation in the summer of 1998, when the tower and lantern were repainted, and some of the original brick, mortar, and ironwork were replaced.

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Copyright 2007 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.