"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men… [no] controls on government would be necessary." — James Madison

Boston Light

Boston Light, aptly dubbed the "ideal American lighthouse" by historian Edward Rowe Snow, holds a place of honor among our nation's beacons.

This was the first light station established on the North American continent and the last in the United States to become automated. It's also the nation's only light station that still retains an official keeper. Because Boston Light was destroyed in the American Revolution and rebuilt in 1783, the tower itself is the second oldest in the United States (New Jersey's Sandy Hook Light, built in 1764, is the nation's oldest lighthouse tower).

Boston's deep and spacious harbor helped the city become colonial America's commercial center. At that time, all large vessels had to enter the harbor between the Brewster Islands in the outer harbor and Point Allerton in the town of Hull. It's recorded that there was a beacon on Point Allerton as early as 1673. The beacon was a simple structure supporting an open iron basket or grate in which "fier-bales of pitch and ocre" were burned. Clough's New England Almanac of 1701 hinted at the need for a lighthouse at the entrance

to the harbor. Early in 1713, a prominent Boston merchant and selectman named John George, representing the business community of the city, proposed to the General Court the "Erecting of a Light Hous & Lanthorn on some Head Land at the Entrance to the Harbour of Boston for the Direction of Ships & Vessels in the Night Time bound into the said Harbour."

A committee headed by Lieutenant Governor William Tailer planned for the lighthouse. After visiting several of the harbor islands and conferring with the area's most experienced shipmasters, Tailer reported that the best site for the lighthouse was "the Southernmost Part of the Great Brewster called Beacon Island." Beacon Island, now known as Little Brewster, is attached to Great Brewster by a sand bar.

On July 23, 1715, the General Court of Massachusetts passed the Boston Light Bill. It read, in part:

"Whereas the want of a lighthouse erected at the entrance to the harbor of Boston hath been a great discouragement to navigation by the loss of the lives and estates of several of his majesty's subjects; for prevention thereof—Be it enacted . . . that there be a lighthouse erected at the charge of the Province, on the southernmost part of the Great Brewster, called Beacon Island, to be kept lighted from sun setting to sun rising."

The first lighthouse was financed by a tax of a penny a ton on all vessels coming into the harbor, and the same amount for vessels leaving the harbor. Smaller coasting vessels paid only two shillings as they left the harbor. Fishing vessels and small vessels transporting lumber and other building materials locally were taxed five shillings yearly. The exact dimensions of the original stone tower aren't known, but it's believed that it was at least 50 feet tall. The first keeper, 43-year-old George Worthylake, lighted the lighthouse on Friday, September 14, 1716. Worthylake—who was brought up on George's Island in Boston Harbor—moved to the light station with his wife Ann, their daughters Ruth and Ann, and an African slave named Shadwell. Worthylake also maintained a farm on Lovell's Island, closer to Boston. He was paid £50 a year, which was raised to £75 in 1717.Worthylake made additional money as a harbor pilot, and he also kept a flock of sheep on Great Brewster Island.

On November 3, 1718, Worthylake went to Boston to collect his pay. On his way back he stopped at Lovell's Island, where he and his wife and their daughter Ruth boarded a sloop heading for Boston Light. A friend, John Edge, accompanied them. The sloop anchored near Little Brewster Island a few minutes past noon, and Shadwell paddled out in a canoe to transfer the party to the island. Young Ann Worthylake and a friend, Mary Thompson, watched from shore.

Suddenly, the two girls on shore saw "Worthylake, his wife & others swimming or floating on the water, with their boat Oversett." The canoe had capsized, and all five people drowned. George, Ann, and Ruth Worthylake were buried beneath a triple headstone in Copp's Hill Burying Ground in Boston's North End.

Benjamin Franklin, twelve years old at the time, was urged by his brother to write a poem based on the disaster. Young Franklin wrote a poem called "The Lighthouse Tragedy" and hawked copies on the streets of Boston. He referred to it years later as "wretched stuff."

Robert Saunders, a former sloop captain, became Boston Light's second keeper on a temporary basis until a new permanent keeper could be chosen. Saunders apparently drowned only a few days after taking the job; no details of the incident survive.

John Hayes, an experienced seaman described as an "able-bodied and discreet person," became the next keeper. Hayes asked for a gallery to be installed around the tower's lantern room so that he could clean the glass of ice and snow. Hayes also noted the need for some kind of fog signal, asking that "a great Gun may be placed on the Said Island to answer Ships in a Fogg." A cannon was placed on the island in 1719, becoming America's first fog signal. It served for well over a century. After some years at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, the cannon was returned by helicopter to its rightful home in 1993. Today the venerable fog cannon sits on a new carriage in the base of the lighthouse tower.

John Hayes retired because of advancing age in 1733. Robert Ball, an Englishman whose stay of about 40 years would be the longest stint of any keeper in the station's history, succeeded him. Ball was assisted by a slave known as Samson, who died in 1762 and was buried on Rainsford Island in the harbor.

A fire gutted the lighthouse in 1751, and for a time the light was shown from a 40-foot spar. The early lighthouse was struck by lightning on several occasions, including an instance in June of 1754 when lightning "tore off shingles from several places on the outside." According to a 1789 article, the installation of a lightning rod was delayed because of the objections of some "godly men" who thought it "vanity and irreligion for the arm of flesh to presume to avert the stroke of heaven." Practicality eventually won out and a lightning conductor was installed.

In July of 1775, Boston Harbor and the lighthouse were under the control of the British. On July 20, American troops led by Major Joseph Vose landed at the lighthouse and took lamps, oil, and some gunpowder, and burned the wooden parts of the tower. After leaving the island they had to outrun an armed British schooner, and two Americans were wounded in the skirmish. An eyewitness described "the flames of the lighthouse ascending up to Heaven, like grateful incense, and the ships wasting their powder."

As the British worked to repair the tower, 300 American soldiers under Major Benjamin Tupper landed on the island on July 31. They easily defeated the British guard and again burned the lighthouse. As the Americans tried to leave, they found their boats stranded; the tide had gone out. This gave British vessels time to reach the scene. The Americans managed to launch their boats as the British fired on them. American troops at Nantasket in Hull helped by firing a cannon at the British boats, landing a direct hit on one ship. This turned the tide of battle and the Americans escaped with only one soldier killed. George Washington praised the "gallant and soldier-like behavior" of the men under Major Tupper.

At the end of their occupation of Boston Harbor during the Revolution, the British lingered in the harbor for some months. As they left the area on June 13, 1776, one of their final acts was to set off a timed charge on Little Brewster, completely destroying the lighthouse. The remains of the metal lantern were used to make ladles for American cannons.

Boston Light wasn't rebuilt until 1783. The new 75-foot rubblestone tower was designed "to be nearly of the same dimensions of the former lighthouse." It has sometimes been claimed that part of the original tower was incorporated into the new one, but there is no evidence to support this claim.

Thomas Knox was the first post-Revolution keeper. He stayed in the position for 27 years while also serving as a harbor pilot. The light station was ceded to the federal government in 1790. In June of 1809, the local lighthouse superintendent, Henry Dearborn, found three perpendicular cracks in the tower, extending for almost its entire height. Six iron hoops were added around the tower for extra support. One band was removed in the early 20th century; five aluminum bands are in place today.

Winslow Lewis installed a new lantern in 1839, along with new 21-inch reflectors from England. The engineer I. W. P. Lewis, Winslow's nephew, visited Boston Light for his 1843 report to Congress. He was critical, calling the tower "loose and leaky," and noting that the wooden stairway was so rotten "as to be unsafe of ascent." The two-story house, with four rooms on each floor, was in good repair, as was a new boathouse. A 1,375-pound fog bell, operated by clockwork machinery, replaced the old cannon in 1851. Moses Barrett saw much change during his time as keeper (1856–1862). The Lighthouse Board had suggested in 1857 that the tower be rebuilt at a cost of $71,000, but improvements were made instead. In 1859, the tower was raised to its present height of 89 feet and a new lantern was installed, along with a 12-sided second-order Fresnel lens. The giant lens—about 11 feet tall and 15 feet in circumference—rotated by means of a clockwork mechanism that required frequent winding. A single lamp inside the new lens replaced the system of multiple lamps, and round "bull's-eye" panels on the lens produced a flash each time they passed in front of the light source. The lens went into operation on December 20, 1859. During that same year the tower was lined with brick, a spacious brick entryway was added to the tower, and a new duplex keeper's house was built. Beginning in 1861, Boston Light was assigned two assistants to help the keeper.

A Daboll compressed-air trumpet replaced the fog bell in 1872 and remained in use until 1887, when it was replaced by a steam-driven siren. In the late 1800s, students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducted experiments with fog signals at Boston Light, trying to perfect a signal that would penetrate the so-called "ghost walk," an area about six miles east of the lighthouse where no sound could penetrate. Despite the students' efforts, even the largest horn could not penetrate the "ghost walk."

Maurice Babcock was keeper from 1926 to 1941 when the Coast Guard took over the operation of Boston Light. In 1934, members Historical Society held a ceremony on Little Brewster honoring the 25 keepers of Boston Light. Fitz-Henry Smith, author of a history of the lighthouse, unveiled a tablet bearing the names of the keepers. Keeper Babcock was invited to speak. Here is the entire text of his speech:

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am not much of an orator, but I enjoy keeping the light burning for the ships coming in, and the fog signal sounding. I thank you."

The Babcocks' son Bill carried on the family tradition, becoming a keeper at Graves Light in Boston Harbor, and Ralph Norwood, who had been an assistant under Maurice Babcock, enlisted in the Coast Guard and became the next head keeper at Boston Light.

The 1930s had been exciting years for the Norwoods. In 1932, Josephine Norwood, wife of the assistant keeper, was expecting their seventh child. The birth seemed imminent the night of a terrible storm. Dr. Walter H. Sturgis of Hull made the trip to Little Brewster, but it was a false alarm. Mrs. Norwood had her child in calm weather a week later. Nevertheless, a legend was born—Georgia Norwood became famous as the "Storm Child." When Georgia was five, author Ruth Carmen visited Hull and heard the story. Carmen wrote a novel called Storm Child, a highly fictionalized version of the Norwoods' story that even included a tidal wave destroying the lighthouse.

Hollywood became interested, and a movie version was planned with little Georgia to play herself. Described as "smiling and sunny-curled," Georgia Norwood was to be the "Bay State's own Shirley Temple." At the last moment, Ralph and Josephine Norwood decided against letting Georgia go to Hollywood—they thought she'd have a happier life at home with her family. Apparently Georgia agreed, as she reportedly said, "I don't want to go to Hollywood. I want to go back to Boston Light." The legend of the Storm Child lived on just the same, as Georgia's son later wrote a book called First Light telling the true story of his mother's birth and life at Boston Light.

In the 1930s, one-acre Little Brewster Island was home to as many as 19 children among the three keepers' families. Summers were lively with rowboat races and pie eating contests, and games of all sorts were played, even baseball—the water was "out." The older children made money by lobstering. Life was mostly harmonious, although Maurice Babcock, Jr. did get a punch in the nose once from one of the Norwood girls; he had trespassed onto the Norwoods' part of the island.

Years later, Bruce Norwood would say, "I've never been in another place that felt like the home Boston Light was."

In the winters, the children boarded in Hull or Winthrop where they attended school, waiting eagerly for vacations and their glorious summers back on Little Brewster.

Boston Light was extinguished during World War II, going back into operation in July of 1945. The light was electrified in 1948, and shortly afterwards the clockwork mechanism that rotated the lens was replaced by an electric motor. The original Fresnel lens remains in use today.

In 1960, it was decided that the smaller 1885 keeper's house would suffice for the Coast Guard keepers. The 1859 duplex house, which had badly deteriorated, was burned down by the Coast Guard. Boatswain's Mate First Class William "Mike" Mikelonis was the Coast Guard keeper at Boston Light for several years, beginning in 1962. The Coast Guard staff then spent two weeks on the island and one week off. Mikelonis and other keepers over the years have enjoyed great fishing off the ledges. By the time Mikelonis retired in 1967, he reportedly had caught over 1,000 striped bass, two of them over 50 pounds. On his retirement Mikelonis was presented with the bulb that burned in the tower on his last day of duty.

By 1989, the Coast Guard had automated every lighthouse in the United States, and Boston Light was scheduled to be the last in this process. Preservation groups appealed to Congress and the Coast Guard, and with the help of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, funding was appropriated to keep Coast Guard staff on Little Brewster, making the island a living museum of lighthouse history. In 1990, Historic Boston, Inc., and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management commissioned a Stewardship Plan and preservation guidelines for Boston Light. As a result of the study, much work has been done on the island in recent years, including the replacing of trim on the keeper's house and the repainting of all the buildings.

Boston Light became the last lighthouse in the United States to become automated on April 16, 1998, but a Coast Guard crew continued to perform all the other traditional keepers' duties except for turning the light on at sunset and turning it off at sunrise. The light currently operates 24 hours a day. Coast Guard Auxiliary (volunteer) personnel have worked on the island since 1980, and women have often been part of the crew. Auxiliarists Sally Snowman and James Thomson of Plymouth, Massachusetts, were married on Little Brewster Island in 1994. The couple published a book called Boston Light: A Historical Perspective. It was the first book written about Boston Light's history in more than 80 years.

In September of 2003, Sally Snowman was appointed as the new civilian keeper—the first civilian keeper since the Coast Guard took over in 1941 and the first woman keeper in the lighthouse's long history. The active duty Coast Guard personnel that had been assigned to the island were relocated to meet the needs of Homeland Security. There is one Coast Guard engineer currently assigned to work with the keeper to ensure the facility is sufficiently maintained. The Coast Guard Auxiliary personnel at Boston Light are now referred to as Watchstanders, and in 2000, a program was established for their training. National Park rangers are also present during the days the island is open from June to October. The rangers are there during the day only, while the Watchstander Program requires staying overnight on the island for four to seven-day stretches.

You can see Boston Light distantly from the shores of Hull, Revere and Winthrop, and from high buildings in Boston. The Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands run several special trips to Little Brewster Island every summer, and the National Park Service runs trips from Boston in season. Visitors on these trips get to climb the 76 stairs to the top of Boston Light for a breathtaking view of Boston Harbor.

If you visit Little Brewster, make sure to look on the rocks for initials and names carved by keepers and visitors to Boston Light, some dating back to the 1700s.

You can read much more about this lighthouse in Jeremy D'Entremont's book The Lighthouses of Massachusetts.



by Jeremy D'Entremont