The following assessment / description of Long Point Lighthouse, Massachusetts, by I.W.P. Lewis, Civil Engineer, is recorded in the House of Representatives, Doc. No. 183: Report of Evidence relating to the Light-House Establishment, 1842…
Fixed light if 10 lamps; established in 1826
The original Long Point Lighthouse. The structure was built in 1826 and went into service in early 1827.
(National Archives photo)
A wooden tenement of three rooms on a floor, and attic chambers, with a frame tower on the roof of the house; the whole in good repair. The house is erected on piles set in the sand, eight feet deep, and is surrounded by a piled enclosure of spruce logs, filled in with sand, and a walk or platform all round. This enclosure was constructed a few years since, to protect the house from the surf; and then it was found necessary to throw down, outside the bulkhead, some 1,800 tons of stone, to protect it from the same enemy. The whole job, taken collectively, is styled a “breakwater.”
The lantern at this place is similar to those before described; it contains ten lamps, ¾ inch burners, with 14 ½ inch reflectors, placed six to seven inches apart; one lamp and reflector have faced the door of the lantern for eighteen years, at a cost of $900, and burning entirely to waste.
The center of the light is thirty-five feet above the level of mean high water; but, being overtopped by the houses at Wood End, it is not opened to view until within two miles of it.
Location – On the extreme point of the spiral curved sand bank, which forms the outline of Provincetown Harbor. The uses of the light are to indicate the position of this point, and a bar which extends from it one-fourth of a mile, as also to give the bearing of the best anchorage.
One lamp of a suitable form is amply sufficient for this place.
Statement of Charles Derby, keeper of Long Point fixed light, Cape Cod Harbor, September 20, 1842…
“I was appointed keeper of this light upon its first establishment in 1826. My house is a frame building, with a tower and lantern on the roof. The lantern contains ten lamps, one of which has stood facing the door of the lantern, which is made of sheet copper, for eighteen years. The house rests upon wooden piles, which were placed eighth feet below the surface of the sand, and the sills of the house were five feet above the sand. About four years since, a pier of wood work was built around the house to protect it from the surf, and afterwards some eighteen hundred tons of stone were thrown down about the pier to break the force of the sea. My salary is about $350. I have no well of fresh water, but depend upon my rainwater cistern for a supply. I am allowed a boat, but there is neither boathouse nor landing place. Last October my boat was lost, in consequence of not having a slip to haul my boat up. My oil has been good this year, and the last also.” – Charles Derby, Keeper
An overview of the bulkhead that helped protect the original Long Point Lighthouse.
(National Archives photo)
