Gay Head Lighthouse

Year Built

1799

Cost

$5,750

Type

Conical

Height

51 feet

Location

Aquinnah

Automated Year

1960

First Lit

1856 (current structure)

Lens Type

First order Fresnel lens (original), DCB-224 (current)

Fog Signal

None

Year Deactivated

Active

Color

Red brick with black lantern

Last Keeper - Date

Joseph Hindley (1950 – 1956)

Description

A wooden lighthouse tower, wooden keeper's house; a whale oil storage building, and various other outbuildings.

Brief History

•  Early in the nineteenth century, the tower at Gay Head was lowered fourteen feet to reduce the probability of its light being obscured in fog.
•  When Charles Vanderhoop, an Aquinnah Wampanoag became head keeper at Sankaty Head Lighthouse in 1919, he was believed to be the first Native American to serve as head keeper of a U.S. lighthouse.
•  Gay Head was listed as one of the most important lighthouses in the US. It was also one of the first to receive a Fresnel lens.
•  In 1952, the light was automated. The lens is on display at the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society Museum in Edgartown, Massachusetts.
•  In September 2014, the Town of Aquinnah’s application to take ownership of the lighthouse was approved, and the structure was officially awarded to the town on February 20, 2015.