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The Cape Ann Light Station on
Thacher Island
Thacher Island is a small island off Cape Ann on the Massachusetts coast in the United States. It is a part of the Town of Rockport. It was a place where some naval confrontations, both minor and major, took place, which helped secure a victory fo ...
, off Cape Ann in Rockport, Massachusetts
Rockport is a seaside New England town, town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,992 in 2020. Rockport is located approximately northeast of Boston at the tip of the Cape Ann peninsula. Rockport borders Gloucester ...
, is nationally significant as the last light station to be established under colonial rule and the first station in the United States to mark a navigational hazard rather than a harbor entrance. The current pair of lighthouses were built in 1861. They were both equipped with first order Fresnel lenses, which stood approximately high and weighed several tons (tonnes).
After being decommissioned in the early 1980s, the lens from the south tower was moved to the U.S. Coast Guard Museum at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. In 2013 a joint effort by the Cape Ann Museum and the Thacher Island Association brought the lens back to Cape Ann. The first order lens is now on display at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester () is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 U.S. Census. An important center of the fishing industry and a ...
.
When these lights were built, there was no way to produce a flashing light and, occasionally mariners would confuse one light for another with disastrous results. The only way to create a distinction was to build more than one light. There were two lights at Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
and three at Nauset Beach
Nauset Beach is a public beach on the east coast of outer Cape Cod in Orleans, Massachusetts, which extends south from a point opposite Nauset Bay to the mouth of Chatham Harbor. It is popular with swimmers, surfers, boogie boarders and fish ...
. Gradually as it became possible to create flashes with a revolving lens system, the multiple lights were discontinued, so that while the south light is an active, Coast Guard maintained light, the north tower was discontinued in 1932. It was relighted as a Private Aid to Navigation in 1989. Both lights are now owned by the Town of Rockport and managed by the Thacher Island Association.
The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Twin Lights Historic District – Cape Ann Light Station on October 7, 1971, reference number 71000355. In 2001 they became the 9th light station to be recognized as a National Historic Landmark.
Cape Ann Light
Cape Ann Light is the southernmost of the two lighthouses that comprise the station.Thacher Island North Light
Thacher Island North Light is the northernmost of the two lighthouses that comprise the station.
Nomenclature
*The south light's official name in the US Coast Guard Light List is Cape Ann Light, number 1-295. *The north light's official name is Thacher Island North Light, number 1-305. *The National Historic Landmark listing name is Twin Lights Historic District – Cape Ann Light Station. *The lights are known locally as the Twin Lights or Thacher Island Lights.See also
*National Register of Historic Places listings in Essex County, Massachusetts
This list is of that portion of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) designated in Essex County, Massachusetts. The locations of these properties and districts for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below, may b ...
References
{{Lighthouse identifiers , qid2=Q65951660 , qid3=Q62075617 Lighthouses completed in 1771 Towers completed in 1771 Lighthouses completed in 1861 Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts National Historic Landmark lighthouses Rockport, Massachusetts Lighthouses in Essex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Essex County, Massachusetts 1771 establishments in Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts