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Geographic coordinates: 42° 19' 42" N 70° 53' 24" W
Nearest town: Hull. Located on Little Brewster Island in outer Boston Harbor.
Established: 1716. Present lighthouse built: 1783.
Height of tower: 89 feet. Height of focal plane: 102 feet.
Optic: Second-order Fresnel lens.
Characteristic: White flash every 10 seconds.
Fog signal: One blast every 30 seconds.
Boston’s spacious harbor helped it become the commercial center of America in colonial days. Early in 1713, a prominent Boston merchant and selectman named John George, representing the business community of the city, proposed to the General Court the “Erecting of a Light Hous & Lanthorn [sic] . . . for the Direction of Ships & Vessels in the Night Time bound into the said Harbour.” The General Court of Massachusetts passed the Boston Light Bill, and a stone tower was soon built.
The first keeper, forty-three-year-old George Worthylake, moved to the island with his family. An African slave named Shadwell also lived at the lighthouse. Worthylake lighted the lighthouse for the first time on Friday, September 14, 1716.
On November 3, 1718, Worthylake went with his wife and their daughter Ruth to Boston to collect his pay. A family friend joined the party for the return trip. The sloop returned a little past noon, and Shadwell paddled out in a canoe to transfer the party to the island. The canoe capsized and all five people drowned. Benjamin Franklin, twelve years old at the time, wrote a poem called The Lighthouse Tragedy and hawked copies on the streets of Boston.
A cannon, America’s first fog signal, was placed on the island in 1719. Today, the venerable cannon sits on a new carriage in the base of the lighthouse tower.
In July 1775, Boston Harbor and the lighthouse were under the control of the British. On July 20, American troops under Major Joseph Vose landed at the lighthouse and burned the wooden parts of the tower. As the British worked to repair the tower, 300 American soldiers under Major Benjamin Tupper landed at the island on July 31. They easily defeated the British guard and again burned the lighthouse. As the British forces left the area on June 13, 1776, one of their final acts was to set off a timed charge on Little Brewster, completely destroying the lighthouse. A new 75-foot rubblestone tower was built in 1783.
A 1,375-pound fog bell replaced the old cannon in 1851. In 1859, the tower was raised to its present height of 89 feet, and a new lantern was installed along with a second-order Fresnel lens.
Fascinating Fact 
This is the oldest light station in North America and the only one in the United States that still has an official keeper.
For many years, three keepers and their families lived on the tiny island (about 1 acre). In the 1930s, Little Brewster was home to as many as nineteen children. Summers were lively with rowboat races and pie-eating contests versus the children who summered on nearby Great Brewster. The older children made money by lobstering. Games of all sorts were played, even baseball.
In 1932, Josephine Norwood, wife of assistant keeper Ralph Norwood, was expecting their seventh child. The birth seemed imminent the night of a terrible storm. A doctor made the trip to Little Brewster from Hull, but it was a false alarm. Mrs. Norwood had her child in calm weather a week later. Nevertheless, a legend was born. Author Ruth Carmen wrote a novel called Storm Child, a highly fictionalized version of the Norwoods’ story.
By 1989, the Coast Guard had automated every lighthouse in the United States, and Boston Light was scheduled to be the last in this process. Preservation groups appealed to Congress, and funding was appropriated to keep Coast Guard staff on Little Brewster, making the island a living museum of lighthouse history. Coast Guard Auxiliary (volunteer) personnel have worked on the island since 1980. In September 2003, Sally Snowman was appointed as the new civilian keeper. Little Brewster Island is part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, and National Park Service rangers are also present during the days the island is open from June to October.
You can see Boston Light from the shores of Hull (from Nantasket Beach, Fort Revere, and the Hull Lifesaving Museum), and more distantly from Revere Beach and Winthrop Beach. The Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands (781-740-4290, www.fbhi.org) run several special trips to the lighthouse every summer.
The National Park Service runs trips to the lighthouse from Boston in season. Trips depart the Moakley United States Courthouse at Fan Pier in the South Boston Seaport District. Fan Pier is convenient to public transportation, and parking is available. The program includes a narrated harbor tour and views of Graves Light and Long Island Head Light. Participants get to climb Boston Light’s 76 stairs for a magnificent view and a close look at the lens. For the current days and times, call 800-979-3370 or visit www.bostonharborislands.com/tour-lighthouse.
