Accessibility: 
Geographic coordinates: 41° 39' 07" N 70° 10' 08" W
Nearest town: Dennis. Located east of the mouth of the Bass River, West Dennis, on the south side of Cape Cod.
Established: 1855. Present lighthouse built: 1855. Deactivated: 1914. Relighted: 1989.
Height of tower: 44 feet. Height of focal plane: 44 feet.
Previous optic: Fifth-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: 300 mm.
Characteristic: White flash every 6 seconds.
For some years prior to the building of a lighthouse near the mouth of the Bass River, a local man named Warren Crowell kept a lantern burning in the attic window of his house to aid local mariners. In 1850, Congress appropriated $4,000 for a proper lighthouse. Oxen hauled building materials across the local marshes, and when the lighthouse was finished in 1855, Warren Crowell became the first keeper. The station consisted of a two-story dwelling with a lantern on the roof.
The government considered the lighthouse unnecessary with the advent of the Cape Cod Canal and the installation of a nearby automatic beacon, the Bass River West Jetty Light. The lighthouse was extinguished in 1914, and the property was sold at auction. Car dealer Harry K. Noyes used it as a summer residence for a while. In 1938, it was bought by State Senator Everett Stone. The Stones began to have overnight guests at the lighthouse, and it became so popular that they soon opened it as the Lighthouse Inn. Many additions and improvements have been made to the property over the years.
Stone’s son, Bob, eventually took over the management of the inn. Bob’s wife, Mary, later recalled that American planes bombed the rocks near the inn for practice during World War II. The guests would gather on the beach and cheer the show. A 1944 hurricane destroyed the dining room and the oil house, but the Stones continued to expand.
In 1989, the Stone family had their lighthouse relighted as a private aid to navigation. The light, officially designated the West Dennis Light, now operates each summer.
The cozy Lighthouse Inn features 700 feet of private beach, with 61 rooms and cottages and a waterfront dining room offering a five-course dinner every evening. The building is vastly changed, but you can still make out the 1855 lighthouse in the middle of the main building. If you stay at the inn, you might also be able to arrange a tour of the lighthouse and lantern room.
For more information, contact the Lighthouse Inn (508-398-2244, www.lighthouseinn.com). To reach the inn, take Route 6 East on Cape Cod. Take Exit 8 (Dennis) and turn right onto Station Avenue. At the third traffic light, turn left onto Route 28. After about a mile, turn right onto School Street. Follow School Street for a half-mile, and then turn right onto Lighthouse Road. Follow Lighthouse Road for 0.2 miles, and then turn left onto Lighthouse Inn Road.
Fascinating Fact 
Warren Crowell, the light’s first keeper, was wounded and taken prisoner in Virginia during the Civil War.