Black Rock Harbor Light
Black Rock Harbor Light in 2005
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 Connecticut
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| Location |
Fayerweather Island Connecticut United States |
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| Coordinates | 41°8′32.6″N 73°13′2.7″W / 41.142389°N 73.217417°WCoordinates: 41°8′32.6″N 73°13′2.7″W / 41.142389°N 73.217417°W |
| Year first constructed | 1808 (first) |
| Year first lit | 1823 (current) |
| Deactivated | 1932 |
| Foundation | fieldstone basement |
| Construction | granite rubble and brownstone block tower |
| Tower shape | octagonal prism tower with balcony and lantern |
| Markings / pattern | white tower, black lantern |
| Height | 41 ft (12 m) |
| Original lens | 8 lamps, 14 inches (360 mm) parabolic reflectors |
| Current lens | decorative solar light |
| Range | 11 nautical miles (20 km; 13 mi) |
| Characteristic | F W |
| ARLHS number | USA-059 |
| Managing agent | City of Bridgeport |
Black Rock Harbor Light, also known as Fayerweather Island Light, is a lighthouse in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States which stands on the south end of Fayerweather Island and marks the entrance to Black Rock Harbor. The first lighthouse at the site, built by Abisha Woodward under contract with the United States government, was a wooden tower that was lit and made operational by 1808. A storm destroyed the tower in 1821 and the current, stone lighthouse was erected in its place in 1823. The Black Rock Harbor Light was an active navigational aid until 1933 when it was replaced by two automatic lights offshore. The beacon was subsequently given to the City of Bridgeport in 1934. Two significant efforts during the 1980s and 1990s served to restore the aging tower and the light was relit as a non-navigational aid in 2000. Black Rock Lighthouse is listed as a contributing property for Bridgeport's Seaside Park historic district.
In 1807, the United States government bought the 9.5 acres (3.8 ha) of land upon which the lighthouse stands from Daniel Fayerweather for $200. The government appropriated $5000 for the light station in February 1807 and contracted Abisha Woodward to construct the light. The first Black Rock Harbor Light was a 40-foot (12.1 meter) octagonal wooden tower built in 1808. Abisha Woodward, who previously constructed the 1801 New London Harbor Light and the 1802 Falkner Island Light, constructed a wooden tower that was lit and made operational by October 1808. The lightkeeper's home was a small one and a half story home built on the opposite side of a marsh, several hundred feet away from the tower. Another brick structure was built to house the oil. The total cost of the wooden lighthouse, and likely the accompanying keeper's house and oil house, was listed at $4604.69.
On September 3, 1821, the wooden tower was destroyed in the Norfolk and Long Island hurricane and was replaced with a 40-foot (12.1 meter) octagonal stone tower at a cost of $2300.53. Completed in 1823, the new tower was made of coursed sandstone ashlar and rubble mortar and was claimed by its builder to "withstand the storm of ages." This boisterous claim was countered by Edmund Blunt, an American Coast Pilot, who stated, "a more contemptible Lighthouse does not disgrace Long Island Sound, most shamefully erected and badly kept." In 1835, $2052.63 was used to preserve the buildings on Fayerweather Island, including the lighthouse. Three years later, in 1838, on the report of a Captain Gregory, another $1529.60 was used to build a seawall to protect the buildings. Another $15,000 would be used from 1847 through 1849 to complete the seawall. The original keeper's quarters, then referred to as a "dilapidated old edifice", was replaced in 1879.
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