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Geographic coordinates: 41° 23' 27" N 70° 30' 11" W
Nearest town: Edgartown. Located in Edgartown Harbor, on the east coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
Established: 1828. Present lighthouse built: 1881. Automated: 1933.
Height of tower: 45 feet. Height of focal plane: 45 feet.
Previous optic: Fourth-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: 250 mm.
Characteristic: Red flash every 6 seconds.
Edgartown’s spacious harbor is bounded by Chappaquiddick Island to the south and east. By the 1800s, more than 100 Edgartown men were captains of whaling ships. Congress appropriated $5,500 in 1828 for the purpose of establishing a lighthouse at the entrance to Edgartown Harbor. A two-story house with a lantern on the roof was soon constructed. The first keeper, Jeremiah Pease, was also an accountant and surveyor.
At first, the lighthouse was slightly offshore and could be reached only by boat. In 1830, a wooden causeway was added. The causeway became known as the “Bridge of Sighs,” because men about to leave on whaling voyages would walk there with their wives or girlfriends.
The dwelling and walkway were repaired often through the years. The hurricane of September 21, 1938, did great damage to the old building. After the Coast Guard took over the Lighthouse Service in 1939, they quickly demolished the dilapidated structure. Plans to erect a beacon on a skeleton tower were objected to by residents, so the Coast Guard instead decided to relocate an 1881 cast-iron tower from Ipswich.
Over the decades, sand gradually filled in the area between the lighthouse and the mainland, making the structure more easily accessible. The lighthouse is now under the care of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum. A memorial was established at the base of the lighthouse in 2001. The Martha’s Vineyard Children’s Lighthouse Memorial consists of stones engraved with the names of children who have died, along with part of a poem by Tomas Napoleon titled “A Remembrance of an Unforgotten Vineyard Summer.”
Fascinating Fact 
This lighthouse tower was originally erected on a beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1881. It was disassembled and moved by barge to Edgartown in 1939.
For information or to donate to the Martha’s Vineyard Children’s Lighthouse Memorial, write to Children’s Lighthouse Memorial, P.O. Box 827, Edgartown, MA 02539. Web site: www.childrenslighthousememorial.org.
In 2007, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum received funds for a restoration of the lighthouse. The renovations included the installation of new windows with glass panes and a spiral staircase to the top of the tower. Previously, there had been only a ladder. The grounds around the lighthouse at Lighthouse Beach are open year-round. The lighthouse is open for an extensive schedule of open houses from late May to mid-October; see www.mvmuseum.org/lighthousetours.php or call 508-627-4441 for details.
SIDE TRIP: Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society Museum
The collections of the island’s largest museum include more than 30,000 items relating to all aspects of life on Martha’s Vineyard: paintings, prints and sculpture, hunting and fishing and shellfishing tools, fossils and botanical samples, maritime-related tools, Wampanoag tools, and much more. Of chief interest to lighthouse buffs is the old first-order lens from the Gay Head Lighthouse, which is displayed in a replica lantern on the museum grounds. The museum also boasts a 5,000-book research library with a vast paper collection dating back to the 1600s.
Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society
P.O. Box 1310
Edgartown, MA 02539
Street Address: 59 School Street
(Pease House) Corner of Cooke and School Streets
Phone: 508-627-4441
Web site: www.mvmuseum.org
To drive to the lighthouse from Vineyard Haven, follow Edgartown Road, which becomes Vineyard Haven Road after about 3.3 miles. Continue for about 3.5 miles; the road becomes Main Street in Edgartown. Turn left onto North Water Street, and then turn right onto Starbuck Neck Road. A walking path leads from the road to the beach and lighthouse. Street parking in the vicinity can be hard to come by in the heart of the summer season. There is also a free parking lot off Main Street as you enter Edgartown.
For information on how to reach Martha’s Vineyard and island tours, see the section on Gay Head Light.
