The Plum Island Light
The Plum Island Light is just across the parking lot from Flotilla 38 headquarters at the Plum Island Boathouse. The present tower (photo at right) that we can see from the window of our headquarters was built in 1898, as was the keeper's house next to it. The tower height is 35 feet, constructed of wood and has a fourth order Fresnel lens as an optic. The lens was manufactured in 1856 for an earlier tower and was transferred to the present lighthouse. The light was automated in 1951, originally clear it was changed to green in 1981, occulting at two eclipses every 15 seconds. The earliest ATONs on Plum Island were fires on the beach or torches erected on poles. In 1787, the Massachusetts Legislature (known then as the "Great and General Court") authorized the building of "two small wooden lighthouses on the north end of 'Plumb' Island". Local merchants paid for the lights, which were finished in 1788 and they were ceded to the federal government in 1790. Abner Lowell became the first federally appointed keeper of Plum Island light under President George Washington, three generations of the Lowell family served as keepers.
The original two towers served as range lights and they had to be built on movable foundations so their positions could be changed easily as the sandbars at the mouth of the river shifted. The lights on Plum Island were originally fueled by whale oil. Keeper Lewis Lowell, the son of Abner Lowell, lit a charcoal fire under the lantern one bitterly cold night to keep the oil from congealing, he was overcome by the fumes and died at his post of asphyxiation. Accessible only by boat in its early years, the Plum Island Light Station was isolated, dangerous and often battered by storms. In 1838 the lighthouses were replaced by a new pair of octagonal towers, again built on moveable foundations. However, living conditions hadn't improved much by 1842 when keeper Phineas George complained that the towers and lanterns were leaky, and that the house was a "cold, leaky, and uncomfortable dwelling."
In 1855 a strange looking small tower called the "bug light" was added, and the following year one of the lighthouses was destroyed by fire. It was decided not to rebuild, and the surviving lighthouse eventually received a fourth order Fresnel lens. The shifting sands left the remaining tower and the "Bug" too far inland; they were moved several times between 1870 and 1882 (photo at left: Plum Island Light around 1880, from the collection of noted New England historian Edward Rowe Snow, courtesy of Dorothy Bicknell).
In 1898 the present day tower was built next to the old one, the lens was transferred to the new lighthouse and it was first lighted on September 20, 1898. Kerosene had replaced whale oil in 1878 but electricity didn't make it to the lighthouse until 1927.
In 1984 the Coast Guard refurbished the lighthouse by repainting the tower, replacing lantern glass, installing a drain around the outside and creating a new oak door and exterior storm door. This was a team effort that included active duty, reserve and Auxiliary personnel. In 1996 the lighthouse was leased to the Friends of Plum Island Light. The Coast Guard funded further restoration in 1997 to include re-shingling of the tower and the placement of new roofing tar on the catwalk. The Friends of Plum Island Light have now taken over the maintenance of the lighthouse and are planning to restore the tower's interior. They also hope to restore the 1898 keeper's house to the turn-of-the-century period.
(Photo at right: Fresnel lens inside the Plum Island Light)
The source for this article was the website of Jeremy D'Entremont, Coastlore Productions, 79 Highland Avenue, Winthrop, MA 02152 who graciously granted The Jetties permission to use the material contained therein.
For more stories and photos of New England lighthouses visit www.lighthouse.cc
