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 ...

References

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* * {{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

See also

References

External links