Stonington Harbor Lighthouse

Year Built

1823

Cost

$3,000

Type

Octagonal

Height

36 feet

Location

Stonington

Automated Year

N/A

First Lit

1840

Lens Type

Sixth-order Fresnel (1856) - Present: None

Fog Signal

None

Year Deactivated

1889

Color

Granite

Last Keeper - Date

Louis S. Poutray (1919 – 1926)

Description

The lighthouse is now a museum and is open to the public.

Brief History

•  The first keeper of Stonington Harbor Lighthouse was William Potter, a captain of the militiamen who fought off the British in the War of 1812.
•  Keeper Pendleton might not have liked tending the breakwater light, as in April 1890, just five months after it was placed in operation, George W. Beckwith was transferred from Penfield Reef Lighthouse to Stonington.
•  A frame house was finally built for the keeper just south of the old Stonington Lighthouse in 1908, after Congress provided $6,000 on June 30, 1906.
•  In 1925, Stonington Harbor Lighthouse was offered for sale by the government. The winning and only bid came from the Stonington Historical Society, who refurbished the structure and opened it to the public as a museum.
•  In 2017, after four years of revisions and negotiations, the Stonington planning and zoning commission unanimously approved a 500-square-foot addition to the lighthouse that will serve as a new, handicap-accessible entrance to the museum.