Accessibility: 
Geographic coordinates: 42° 21' 54" N 70° 52' 09" W
Nearest town: Winthrop. Located in outer Boston Harbor at the entrance to the Broad Sound Channel.
Established: 1905. Present lighthouse built: 1905.
Height of tower: 113 feet. Height of focal plane: 98 feet.
Earlier optic: First-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: VRB-25.
Characteristic: Two white flashes every 12 seconds.
Fog signal: Two blasts every 20 seconds.
An iron bell buoy was placed near the Graves Ledges in outer Boston Harbor in 1854. It was later replaced by a whistling buoy beyond the northeast end of the ledges; the sound of the buoy was described in a newspaper as a “shriek of despair.”
A shipping channel into Boston Harbor, the Broad Sound Channel, was improved in the early 1900s, necessitating a lighthouse at the Graves Ledges. Congress appropriated funds in 1902. Construction began in 1903. The huge granite blocks for the tower were cut on Cape Ann and transported to Lovell’s Island in Boston Harbor. A steam vessel carried workers and materials from Lovell’s to the Graves Ledges.
The light went into operation on September 1, 1905. The giant first-order Fresnel lens rotated on a bed of mercury. Entrance to the tower was at the top of a 30-foot ladder, and three levels inside the tower served as living quarters for the keepers. The bottom 42-foot section of the tower is filled with concrete, with space left for a cistern.
Elliot C. Hadley was the first keeper. He reported that storms never shook the tower; the only vibrations were from the firing of practice shots from nearby forts. “The way we found out first was by having all our dishes broken,” he told a reporter.
The light was automated, and the keepers were removed in 1976. The light was converted to solar power in 2001. The lighthouse is still owned and operated by the Coast Guard. You can see it distantly from Winthrop Beach and Revere Beach to the north and from Nantasket Beach in Hull to the south.
Better views are available from some of the lighthouse cruises offered by the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands (781-740-4290, www.fbhi.org) and Boston Harbor Cruises (617-227-4321, www.bostonharborcruises.com).
Fascinating Fact 
The most famous shipwreck in this vicinity was in April 1938, when the 419-foot British freighter City of Salisbury hit an uncharted rock with a cargo of exotic zoo animals. Most of the animals—and all of the humans—were rescued successfully.
