Little Brewster Island
Boston Harbor, MA - 1716
The Boston Light is much older than the nation it now serves. Built in 1716 by the colony of Massachusetts, it was the first true lighthouse, with tower and glassed-in lantern, in North America. To defray the expense of maintaining the light, colonial officials imposed a duty of one penny per ton on ships moving in and out of Boston Harbor. Early keepers, including Worthylake (1716-18), and John Hayes (1718-33), received a salary of fifty to seventy British pounds per year, which they supplemented by serving as harbor pilots.
The violence of the American Revolution left only ruins on Little Brewster Island, and in 1783 the Massachusetts legislature raised 1,450 pounds to rebuild the lighthouse. For their money, the people of Massachusetts got a solid structure with walls seventy-five feet high and more than seven feet thick at the base. The tower has stood for more than 200 years, through countless gales, half a dozen hurricanes, and an assortment of fires and other calamities, all without substantial repair.
To make the light more effective, the Lighthouse Board had fourteen feet added to the height of the tower in 1859. The second-order Fresnel lens installed that same year is still in use. Today the light is visible for up to sixteen miles.
