Tenants Harbor Light

Year Built

1857

Cost

$4,500

Type

Cylindrical tower, with attached dwelling

Height

27 feet

Location

Southern Island, Tenants Harbor

Automated Year

N/A

First Lit

1857

Lens Type

Fourth order Fresnel Lens

Fog Signal

Bell in square pyramidal tower - Current tower is a replica

Year Deactivated

1933

Color

White with black lantern

Last Keeper - Date

Leonard B. Dudley (1923 – 1933)

Description

The light by the 1900s had a fifth-order Fresnel lens replaced the original fourth-order lens. he 1½-story, wood-framed, colonial cape lighthouse keeper's residence was constructed in 1857. Other buildings include a storage building, an oil house, a boathouse, and a hand-operated fog bell in a square pyramidal tower.

Brief History

•  A one-acre parcel and right-of-way on Southern Island were purchased in 1855, and in 1857.
•  A fifth-order, Henry-Lepaute lens had been installed in the tower by 1863.
•  Levi Smalley of St. George was the first keeper to live in the little red house (with his wife Lucy and daughter Sarah) and care for the light in the white tower with its red lantern and ventilator ball.
•  The station’s hand bell, which had been rung in answer to vessels’ signals since around 1884, was replaced in 1908 by a 1,1048-pound bell suspended from a pyramidal wooden bell tower.
•  Along with a few other lighthouses, Tenants Harbor was discontinued and surplussed in 1934.