Accessibility: 
Geographic coordinates: 42° 19' 48" N 70° 57' 30" W
Nearest city: Boston. Located at the northern end of Long Island in Boston Harbor.
Established: 1819. Present lighthouse built: 1901. Automated: 1929. Deactivated: 1982. Relighted 1985.
Height of tower: 52 feet. Height of focal plane: 120 feet.
Earlier optics: Fourth-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: 250 mm.
Characteristic: White flash every 2.5 seconds.
Long Island, at 214 acres, is the largest of Boston Harbor’s 34 islands. In the early 1800s, countless vessels passed by the island as they entered the harbor from Broad Sound. Congress appropriated funds for a lighthouse at the northern end of the island in March 1819. The original lighthouse was a 20-foot stone tower topped by a 7-foot-tall lantern. A stone dwelling was attached to the tower. The first keeper was Jonathan Lawrence, who had been wounded in the War of 1812.
SIDE TRIP: Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area
Boston’s spacious harbor is sprinkled generously with islands, many of them rich in history and lore. Park ferries regularly serve Georges Island and four other islands (in season), and park tour boats visit several others. Thirty-nine-acre Georges Island, home of Fort Warren, is the transportation hub of the islands. The island has picnic grounds, open fields, paved walkways, and a snack bar. Guided tours of historic Fort Warren are offered. Georges is also the site of a memorial to historian Edward Rowe Snow, who maintained the “Flying Santa” gift-giving flights to New England lighthouse families for more than forty years. (See www.flyingsanta.org for more on this continuing tradition.) From the island, you can see Boston Light and Graves Light in the distance.
Another highlight of the park is 105-acre Spectacle Island, featuring a marina, visitor center, café, a beach, and 5 miles of walking trails.
Boston Harbor Islands Partnership
408 Atlantic Avenue, Suite 228
Boston MA 02110-3350
Phone: 617-223-8666
Web site: www.bostonislands.org
A new cast-iron tower, 34 feet tall, was built in 1844. That tower was replaced by another cast-iron lighthouse in 1881, and a new wood-frame dwelling was built at the same time.
Keeper John B. Carter was interviewed during a stretch of bad weather in the winter of 1895. “I have a cow and some fowl, and I don’t care how hard it blows,” said Carter. “My daughter has her piano, and we manage to take lots of comfort here, gale or no gale.”
The island’s Fort Strong was enlarged around 1900, and the light station had to be relocated. A new 52-foot cylindrical brick tower was built, and the other buildings were all moved to the new location. The lighthouse was converted to automatic acetylene gas operation in 1929. The keeper’s house and outbuildings have been destroyed.
The Coast Guard discontinued the light in 1982 and then decided to reactivate it three years later. The Coast Guard hired the Campbell Construction Group of Beverly, Massachusetts, for a renovation in 1998. Some of the original brick and iron were replaced, and the tower was repainted.
Fascinating Fact 
The lighthouse tower built here in 1844 was the first cast-iron lighthouse in the United States.
Ownership of the lighthouse was transferred to the National Park Service in June 2011. The tower and grounds are not accessible to the public. (A bridge to Long Island from the city of Quincy was built in 1951, but the bridge is not open to the public.) The lighthouse can be seen from many of the sightseeing cruises in Boston Harbor, including those offered by the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands (781-740-4290, www.fbhi.org), Boston Harbor Cruises (617-227-4321, www.bostonharborcruises.com), the New England Aquarium (617-973-5200, www.neaq.org).
