Goose Rocks Light

Year Built

1890

Cost

$35,000

Type

Sparkplug

Height

51 feet

Location

North Haven

Automated Year

1963

First Lit

1890

Lens Type

Fourth order Fresnel Lens

Fog Signal

Horn: 1 every 10s

Year Deactivated

Active

Color

White with black base and trim

Last Keeper - Date

Carroll G. Peabody (1963)

Description

It is a sparkplug lighthouse, a four-level tapered structure with walls of cast iron plating set on a concrete base. The second level of the structure serves as the keeper's quarters, with the lantern house as the fourth stage. The tower is painted white, with a black base and trim.

Brief History

•  Goose Rocks Lighthouse was finished on November 14, 1890, and Keeper Ira D. Trundy and his assistant Leo Gillis made the inaugural lighting a few weeks later on New Year’s Eve.
•  A 1,200-pound fog bell, struck by machinery a single blow alternating with a double blow at intervals of twenty seconds, was established at the station on April 30, 1891.
•  Goose Rocks was automated in 1963, and a solar-powered, 250-mm optic is now used in the lantern room.
•  In 2008, Beacon Preservation was awarded Penfield Reef Lighthouse under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, but this decision was reversed in 2011 after the group failed to reach a deal with the State of Connecticut for the bottomlands on which the lighthouse stands.
•  Goose Rocks Lighthouse has been carefully restored and is now open for overnight visitors.