The Stage Harbor Lighthouse is located at Harding Beach, Chatham, MA. The elbow of Cape Cod and the north side of Nantucket Sound is one of the foggier places on the East Coast. In the 19th century, its fishing fleet and scores of coasting vessels seeking shelter from contrary winds and bad weather routinely sought refuge in Stage Harbor. In 1880, the Lighthouse Board built a forty-eight foot cast-iron lighthouse and attached clapboard keeper's house at the east end of Harding Beach, alongside the narrow channel leading into the harbor.
In June 1933, the Stage Harbor Lighthouse was taken out of service after a new beacon was placed atop a white skeletal tower. It was located 308 feet south of the old lighthouse. The government eventually declared the station surplus property and sold it to the Hoyt family, who have maintained it in the years since. As of the time of my visit to this lighthouse in 2001 it continued as privately owned.
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