Description:
According to all available
records, the lighthouse at Brant Point, located on the south side of Nantucket Harbor,
Massachusetts., has been rebuilt seven times in addition to three beacons, since it was originally established in 1746.
At a town meeting at Nantucket on January 24, 1746, the sea captains of the island spoke
out for a lighthouse and 200 English pounds were voted for the purpose "in
supposition that the owners of or others concerned in, shipping will maintain a light
therein." However, the expenses of maintaining the light were actually defrayed by
the town. This earliest lighthouse was destroyed by fire in 1758.
At another town meeting held shortly afterward, the
rebuilding of the light was agreed to and another light was built in 1759. This stood
until 1774. In the March 12, 1774, issue of The Massachusetts Gazette and the Boston
PostBoy and Advertiser appears this item: "We hear from Nantucket that on Wednesday
the 9th of March Instant (1774) at about 8 oclock in the Morning, they had a most
violent Gust of Wind that perhaps was ever known there, but it lasted only about a Minute.
It seemed to come in a narrow Vein, and in its progress blew down. and totally destroyed
the Light-House on that Island, besides several Shops, Barns, etc. Had the Gust continued
fifteen Minutes it is thought it would not have left more than half the Buildings
standing, in the Course that it passed. But we dont hear of any Persons receiving
much hurt, nor much Damage done, except the loss of the Light-House which in every respect
is considerable."
Two weeks later the citizens met and agreed to
rebuild the lighthouse for the third time "as High as the former one that blew down
lately at the Towns Expense." As many of the captains from other ports objected
to the system of lighthouse dues, the townsmen petitioned the General Court of
Massachusetts for permission to levy tonnage dues, and, beginning August 1, 1774, that
court ordered that any vessel over 15 tons was subject to a charge of 6 shillings the
first time each year it entered or left Nantucket Harbor. In 1783, the lighthouse was
burned to the ground in a third disaster.
The first three lighthouses had been cheaply
constructed, but the fourth light, for economys sake, was practically nothing but a
beacon built even more cheaply. A wooden lantern, with glass windows was hoisted, in 1783,
between two spars, with grooves to protect and steady the lantern. This lamp gave a very
dim light often compared by mariners to a lightning bug; hence it received the name
"bug light." This "bug light" did not prove satisfactory.
A fifth beaconlike light was
substituted for this in 1786. It was merely a frame, fitted at the top for lamps. This
outfit was wrecked in a heavy storm in 1788. In August 1789 Congress passed the act transferring the colonial lights to the
Federal Government. Some time between 1788 and 1795 another lighthouse was erected on
Brant Point. According to a "Memoranda of Cessions by Massachusetts," dated
1795, "The lighthouse on Brant Point with the tenements and land thereto belonging,
owned by the State, was ceded to the United States in 1795."
This building, the sixth to be erected on this site,
grew old with the years and was condemned in 1825. A small tower framework, the seventh light, was built on top of the keepers
dwelling in 1825. This had eight lamps arranged in a double row, six in the lower series
and two in the upper tier. Behind each of these lamps were 12 2-inch
reflectors.
On November 9, 1853, C. A. Ogden,
Major, Topographical Engineers, recommended to the Lighthouse Board the erection, as the
eighth light, a sixth tower for a second-class lens light at Brant Point, Nantucket, at a
cost of $15,000. "The frame of the light tower at Brant Point is so completely rotted
as to require reconstruction with the least possible delay," the letter continued,
"and believing it to
be the wise policy of the Board to make all its future construction permanent, I have
asked the above amount for the tower. The dwelling house is much decayed, but has a nearly
new roof and weather boarding on it, and may
last for some years yet." A similar recommendation to the Board dated October 22,
1853, from Even W. Allen, collector and superintendent, district of Nantucket, reads in
part "The whole establishment at Brant Point is very much out of repair, and from the
age, material, and construction of the building, I should not consider it good economy to repair it; the interests of the Government and all concerned, seem to demand a more
permanent and commodious structure." Accordingly, on August 3, 1854, Congress
appropriated $15,000 "for
rebuilding the lighthouse at Brandts Point, Nantucket, State of Massachusetts."
This appropriation was spent, $6,383.85 in 1856 and $8,616.15 in 1857, for the erection of
the new tower. The following is a description of this tower. "The foundation of the
tower is of concrete cement 2 feet thick, and 18 feet in diameter. The base is of hammered
granite, laid in courses 2 feet thick to the height of 12 feet. The interior of the base
forms a cistern, where water may be caught for household purposes. The column forming the
tower is of brick laid in cement, with an airspace within the walls for ventilation. The
lamp is of cast iron, with 12 lights of plate glass. A circular iron stairway winds its
spiral way up to a floor of iron, where rests the lantern, 58 feet above the foundation
and 47 feet above the ground."
The lamp was a catadioptric apparatus of the fourth
order, commonly called the Fresnel light. The light was first exhibited December 10, 1856.
In 1900 a fixed red lens-lantern beacon
light was installed at the extremity of Brant Point, 600 feet from the tower, it having
been found necessary to move the light outward, owing to changes in the channel leading
into the harbor of Nantucket. This was the ninth light to be located on the Brant Point
site.
In 1901 a new tower, the tenth light and seventh
tower, was built at the extremity of the point, and the light exhibited there for the
first time on January 31, 1901. This is still in use as a white cylindrical (wooden)
tower, with foot bridge to shore on which is a 1300 candlepower, fourth-order electric
light, fixed red, 26 feet above the water, visible 10 miles. This is the lowest lighthouse
in New England. It is located on the west side of the entrance to Nantucket Harbor. A fog
bell completes the equipment at this station.
A long-standing dispute begun in 1887, over the
boundaries of the land constituting the lighthouse site, which belonged to the United
States, was finally settled in 1901 when five lots, embracing 5.9 acres, on which three
summer dwellings and part of a hotel were located, were sold, as no longer needed for
lighthouse purposes and the proceeds paid into the Treasury.