Accessibility: 
Geographic coordinates: 41° 02' 30" N 73° 26' 38" W
Nearest city: Norwalk. Located on a shoal west of Sheffield Island, on the approach to Norwalk Harbor.
Established: 1902. Present lighthouse built: 1902. Automated: 1972.
Height of tower: 52 feet. Height of focal plane: 62 feet.
Previous optic: Fourth-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: VRB-25.
Characteristic: Alternating red and white flash every 12 seconds.
Fog signal: Two blasts every 20 seconds.
This lighthouse, a typical example of an offshore sparkplug-style cast-iron caisson tower, replaced the old Sheffield Island Lighthouse as a guide past dangerous ledges into Norwalk Harbor. Before its automation in 1972, this was a stag station, with male keepers.
Green’s Ledge was the scene of a sequence of bizarre incidents. In March 1910, keeper John Kiarskon took the station’s only boat ashore, leaving assistant keeper Leroy Loughborough alone. Kiarskon went AWOL, and Loughborough was discovered eleven days later after the light had gone dark. The assistant keeper had run out of food and was found barely conscious, with his dog at his side. Loughborough said he would have shared his last biscuit with the dog. His health never rebounded, and he died a year later at the age of twenty-seven.
Loughborough’s brother, George, became the next assistant to principal keeper William Locke. In March 1912, George Loughborough was ashore when he learned of an aunt’s illness, and he failed to return to the lighthouse. Locke was found sixteen days later, weak and exhausted. At this late date it’s difficult to know whether George Loughborough was motivated by concern for a sick relative or revenge against the Lighthouse Service.
The lighthouse is still owned and operated by the Coast Guard and is not open to the public. A distant view is possible from South Beach in South Norwalk. You can get a much closer view from a charter cruise from Norwalk; visit www.chartermysearay.com or call 203-943-6946. You can also see Green’s Ledge Light distantly from the ferry to Sheffield Island.
Fascinating Fact 
Few keepers stayed more than a year or two at this isolated offshore lighthouse.
