Massachusetts - Marblehead Lighthouse

This lighthouse is located at Marblehead, MA. The original station here in 1835 consisted of a brick tower, only 20 feet tall, and a nearby keeper's dwelling. Between the two was a 100-foot covered walkway. By 1880 sizable shore-front cottages had sprung up around the point, and they all but obscured the beacon to vessels approaching from the south. As a remedy, the Lighthouse Board erected a 100-foot mast between the tower and house, and rigged it with an auxiliary lantern light. Mariners complained that the new arrangement was unsatisfactory.

In 1896, the Board built this permanent structure, a square pyramidal iron tower, unlike any other New England lighthouse. Standing 130 feet tall, the brown skeleton-like structure surrounds a central cast-iron cylinder whose 105 steps spiral up to the black lantern room deck.

The Coast Guard, in 1948, made preliminary plans to do away with the light station and tear down the tower. Instead, they sold the structure and surrounding grounds to a local citizen, who donated it to the town of Marbelhead. At the time of my visit here in 1997, the area was part of the Chandler Hovey Park.