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Portsmouth Harbor
Lighthouse
Facts...
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Photo by Jeremy D'Entremont
Portsmouth Harbor
Lighthouse
New
Hampshire
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Year Built:
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1878
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Height of Tower:
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48 feet
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Description:
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White conical tower showing a fixed
green |
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light from a focal plane of 52 feet above sea level
that is visible 12 nautical miles. The light station is equipped with
a fog horn that sounds one blast every 10 seconds. - Reference: 2005
U.S. Coast Guard Light List
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Location:
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On Fort Point. – Reference: 1939 U.S. |
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Lighthouse
Service Light List |
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Coordinates:
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43 04 18 N…70
42 30 W
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Automated:
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1960
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Status:
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Active aid to
navigation owned by the U.S. Coast Guard and licensed to the American
Lighthouse Foundation. The Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse – a
chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, is dedicated to restoring
the historic lighthouse.
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Light Station
Historical Notes:
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The
first lighthouse established at Portsmouth Harbor Light Station was
completed in July 1771. The structure was described as a shingled wooden
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lighthouse with a
cooper-roofed lantern. The American Revolution had a major impact on the
light, especially given the fact that the beacon was built adjacent to Fort
William and Mary, later named Fort Constitution after the war. During the
period between 1774-1784, the tower was darkened. By the turn of the
century, a new lighthouse was deemed necessary at the station, prompting the
federal government to erect an 80-foot octagonal wooden |
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sentinel in 1804. The new site for the
lighthouse was situated 100 yards east of the original beacon. The height
of the second structure was an object of discussion by engineer I.W.P. Lewis
in 1842 when he suggested that the lighthouse could be shortened 30 feet
due to the establishment of the nearby |
Photo Courtesy of Jeremy D'Entremont
Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse
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Whaleback Light
Station. Eventually, the Lighthouse Service heeded Lewis’s recommendation and shortened the tower
to 55 feet in height. Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse received a fourth order Fresnel lens in 1854. By the year 1878, the light station received its third
lighthouse – a cast-iron tower 48 feet in height. Up until 1902, the
structure was painted reddish-brown in color, before donning the color
white. The last keepers of the light left the station in 1948. The American Lighthouse Foundation and its chapter – the Friends
of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse, assumed stewardship of the lighthouse in 2000
through a license with the U.S. Coast Guard. (Information courtesy of ALF
Historian Jeremy D’Entremont)
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To learn more about Portsmouth
Harbor
Lighthouse and how you can help the Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse,
a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation save this
historic beacon
click
here!
Portsmouth Harbor
Lighthouse
History...
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Portsmouth Harbor
Lighthouse
Historical Features...
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