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Geographic coordinates: 43° 04' 18" N 70° 42' 30" W
Nearest town: New Castle. Located on the northeast point of Great Island, on the Piscataqua River.
Established: 1771. Present lighthouse built: 1878. Automated: 1960.
Height of tower: 48 feet. Height of focal plane: 52 feet
Optic: Fourth-order Fresnel lens.
Characteristic: Fixed green.
Fog signal: One blast every 10 seconds.
Present optic: VLB-44 (LED).
The first lighthouse here was lighted by early July 1771. The shingled tower at Fort William and Mary on Great Island, a mile from the mouth of the Piscataqua River, was about 50 feet tall.
In 1793, President George Washington ordered that the light be maintained at all times, with a keeper living on site. A new 80-foot-tall octagonal wooden tower was constructed in 1804, about 100 yards east of the 1771 tower. A new 48-foot cast-iron tower was erected in 1878 on the same foundation as the 1804 tower. In fact, the new lighthouse was assembled inside the old one, which was eventually removed.
The keeper who served the longest was Joshua Card, who retired at the age of eighty-six in 1909 after thirty-five years at the station. When people would ask Card what the “K” on his uniform stood for, he’d tell them, “Captain.”
Elson Small became keeper in 1946. He and his wife, Connie, left the lighthouse in 1948 when the Coast Guard moved in and made the site their station for Portsmouth Harbor. Years later, Connie Small wrote the book, The Lighthouse Keeper’s Wife. Connie, who lived to the age of 103, gave hundreds of lectures on lighthouse life.
A chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, the Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses, was founded in 2001 to care for the lighthouse. The group holds periodic open houses in summer as well as cruises and other events. See www.portsmouthharborlighthouse.org for more information.
The grounds of adjacent Fort Constitution are open to the public during the day, but visitors are not allowed into the area near the lighthouse except during open houses. To reach the lighthouse from I-95, take exit 5 (Portsmouth Circle). Follow the signs for the Route 1 Bypass South. At the sixth traffic light (two miles from the traffic circle), turn left onto Elwyn Road (the sign says To Route 1A). Follow for 1.4 miles to a small traffic circle. Take the exit for Route 1A north and follow for .4 mile to the intersection with Route 1B. Turn right onto Route 1B. About 2.2 miles from the turn onto Route 1B, you’ll see signs for the Coast Guard Station Portsmouth Harbor and Fort Constitution. Follow these signs to the right and proceed to the free parking area for Fort Constitution. You can see the lighthouse from the fort. (From downtown Portsmouth, follow Marcy Street along the waterfront past Prescott Park and follow the signs for Route 1B, New Castle. The Coast Guard station and lighthouse are about 2.5 miles from Prescott Park.)
The lighthouse can also be seen from sightseeing cruises leaving Portsmouth offered by Portsmouth Harbor Cruises (603-436-8084, www.portsmouthharbor.com) and the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company (603-431-5500, www.islesofshoals.com), as well from cruises leaving Kittery Point (207-439-3655, www.capandpatty.com). Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses offers periodic lighthouse cruises; check www.portsmouthharborlighthouse.org for the schedule. New England Lighthouse Tours offers van trips to this lighthouse and others, based in Portsmouth, NH; see www.newenglandlighthousetours.com or call 603-431-9155.
Fascinating Fact 
The first lighthouse established here in 1771 was the first lighthouse in the American colonies north of Boston.
