Monomoy Point Light
is a historic light in
Chatham, Massachusetts
Chatham () is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. Chatham is located at the southeast tip of Cape Cod and has historically been a fishing community. First settled by the English in 1664, the township was originally called Mo ...
.
The station was established in 1823. The first light was a wood tower and brick lantern room on top of the keeper's house. The current tower, one of the first made of
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
, was built in 1849.
After the opening of the
Cape Cod Canal
The Cape Cod Canal is an artificial waterway in the U.S. state of Massachusetts connecting Cape Cod Bay in the north to Buzzards Bay in the south, and is part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. The approximately canal traverses the neck o ...
in 1914, most vessels bound from south of the Cape to the Boston area took the shorter and safer route through the canal, so there was much less traffic past the light and the light was deactivated in 1923.
It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
as Monomoy Point Lighthouse on November 1, 1979, reference number 79000324.
The keeper's house is preserved and serves today as a guest house. The
Lighthouse Preservation Society
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Lighthouses mar ...
, the
Massachusetts Audubon Society
The Massachusetts Audubon Society, commonly known as Mass Audubon, founded in 1896 by Harriet Hemenway and Minna B. Hall and headquartered in Lincoln, Massachusetts, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "protecting the nature of Massachusetts ...
, and The Friends of Monomoy support preservation of the lighthouse and keeper's house.
It lies within the
Monomoy Wilderness
The Monomoy Wilderness is a wilderness area south of Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is located within the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge and is administered by the US Fish & Wildlife Service. Severe winter storms isolated Mo ...
.
See also
*
References
External links
*
*
{{authority control
Lighthouses completed in 1849
Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Lighthouses in Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Chatham, Massachusetts
Historic American Engineering Record in Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable County, Massachusetts
1823 establishments in Massachusetts
Lighthouses completed in 1823