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Geographic coordinates: 40° 58' 54" N 73° 37' 24" W
Nearest town: Greenwich. Located on a 17-acre island a little more than a mile offshore.
Established: 1829. Present lighthouse built: 1868. Deactivated: 1970.
Height of tower: 51 feet. Height of focal plane: 74 feet.
Previous optic: Fourth-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: none.
Great Captain Island is named for Captain Daniel Patrick of the New Haven Colony, an early settler who was killed in 1643 in a dispute with a Dutch soldier. The island’s location near the main shipping channel through Long Island Sound made it a perfect place for a lighthouse.
The first lighthouse built on the site in 1829 was a 30-foot stone tower, described in an 1850 inspection report as “neglected and filthy.” The station was rebuilt in 1868 as a handsome granite dwelling with a cast-iron tower mounted on its front end.
In 1904, a writer described the light station under Keeper Eugene Mulligan. Everything was “spic and span,” but the keeper, whose wife had recently died, “bore the look of a constant sufferer.” Mulligan had a series of knockdown battles with an assistant keeper. Once, when asked to clean the lighthouse stairs, the assistant blackened both of Mulligan’s eyes.
In 1970, the lighthouse was darkened, and an automatic navigational light on a skeleton tower was installed nearby. Ownership of the lighthouse property went to the Town of Greenwich in 1973, and caretakers lived in the building for some years. The lighthouse gradually fell into poor condition, and the building was vacated for a few years; but it has been restored recently.
Fascinating Fact 
The ownership of Great Captain Island was disputed between Connecticut and New York for more than a hundred years before a commission ruled in favor of Connecticut in 1880.
During the summer months, there is a ferry service to the island from the Arch Street Dock in Greenwich. Call (203) 622-7814 or visit www.greenwichct.org for information.
