Cape Ann Light Station
| Cape Ann Light Station | ||
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| Place: | Thacher Island , Rockport , Massachusetts , United States | |
| Location: | Massachusetts , United States | |
| Geographical location: | 42 ° 38 '12.4 " N , 70 ° 34' 29.8" W | |
| Fire carrier height : | 124 ft (37.8 m ) | |
| Fire height : | 166 ft (50.6 m ) | |
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| Identifier : | Fl.R.5s | |
| Scope red: | 17 nm (31.5 km ) | |
| Optics: | VRB-25 | |
| Construction time: | 1771/1861 | |
| International ordinal number: | J0276 | |
The Cape Ann Light Station (colloquially known as Twin Lights or Thacher Island Lights ) comprises two historic lighthouses on the Rockport island Thacher Island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States . The structures were registered in 1971 under the designation Twin Lights Historic District - Cape Ann Light Station as a Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and have been designated a National Historic Landmark since 2001 .
Structures in the district
The district registered in the NRHP covers the entire island with a size of around 20 hectares , but not all buildings contribute to its historical significance. In the following, therefore, only those structures are described that on the one hand still exist today and on the other hand have been recognized as contributing property .
Twin towers
The two current lighthouses were built from granite between 1860 and 1861 and replaced their predecessors from 1771. They are located in an exact north-south axis a good 270 m apart and are each 37.8 m high, so the fire height is 50 , 6 m above sea level. The northern tower is referred to as Thacher Island North Light , the southern one as Cape Ann Light .
Both lighthouses had 1st order Fresnel lenses when they were built . Inside the towers, which taper from 9 m in diameter at the base to 5.5 m at the top, a spiral staircase with 156 iron steps leads up to the beacon. Inside the tube, a second, 60 cm thick wall made of bricks was erected half a meter from the granite. The sixteen-sided, 3 m high fire house is made of cast iron , bronze and glass and has a roof made of copper plates , at the top of which a roof fan is attached.
In 1932, the Fresnel lenses were exchanged for oil lamps with a luminosity of 22,000 candles , before the south tower was electrified that same year using a 1.8 km long submarine cable . The north tower was then switched off and the safety of shipping was left only to the south tower, which now had a luminosity of 70,000 candle strengths. In 1979 the south tower was converted to a DCB-224 system with 160,000 candle strengths and a range of around 30 km and was also automated. In 1998, the look of the south tower was changed to the current VRB-25 system, which is powered by solar power. The Cape Ann Light has been in continuous use for over 150 years.
The Paris- made Fresnel lens of the South Tower is on display today at the Coast Guard Academy Museum in Groton, Connecticut .
Residential buildings
From 1771 to 1945 the beacons were looked after by a total of 20 lighthouse keepers and their assistants. In 1872, the guard at the time asked whether a house could be built for him and his family, which was finally approved. Thus from 1876 there were three houses on the island in which five families lived, with only the principal keeper and his family having a house to himself. This was built of wood, has a floor area of 185 m², towers up two floors and has its own cellar.
The second existing house is made of bricks and was built around 1816. The walls are 60 cm thick and stand on a stone foundation. The building has a floor area of around 200 m² and is two and a half stories high.
Utility building
About 90 meters northeast of the second house is another stone building in 1887, which housed a steam-powered fog horn . It was badly damaged during a storm in 1991 and had to be repaired. The current diaphone , type FA-232/02, is operated with solar power and is located near the south tower.
Infrastructure
The island can only be reached by boat or helicopter. On the west coast there is a boathouse with a pier, the forerunner of which was built in 1843. Mainly due to the prevailing forces of nature, the house and dock have to be renewed regularly.
In the vicinity of the boathouse there is a tool shed built in 1907 that used to house the hoist drive and today contains the transfer point for the submarine cable that supplies the island with electricity.
Tracks installed in the 1880s lead from the pier to the houses on the island, on which coal and other heavy supplies were transported by handcarts. A former fuel storage facility and a cistern also add to the historical significance .
Historical meaning
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Thacher Island was discovered by Samuel de Champlain as early as 1605 , but is named after the Englishman Anthony Thacher, whose ship sank near the island in 1635 during a storm. He and his wife Elizabeth were the only survivors of the disaster in which they not only lost their four children, but 17 other people were also killed. The Massachusetts General Court gave Thacher the island, which he christened Thacher's Woe ( German Thacher’s suffering ), as compensation for his loss. The island remained in the family's possession for the next 80 years until the colonial government bought it back for 500 pounds sterling (now approx. 70,000 pounds) in order to build a lighthouse there.
The 14 m high twin towers, which were first put into operation on December 21, 1771 - the construction of which goes back mainly to a request from John Hancock , who owned some ships at Cape Ann - were the first in North America to have a danger zone instead of a port marked and the last to be built by the British colonial government. They quickly got the nickname Ann's Eyes .
An incident occurred in 1775 when American patriots branded the incumbent lighthouse keeper Tory and removed him from the island, after which the lighthouses were no longer operational until 1793.
In 1790, the island became the property of the federal government of the United States . In 1793 the lighthouses were put back into operation; Since the twin towers were the first structures that could be seen from the ships arriving from Europe, they were of very great importance to the government.
In 1837 Charles Wheeler was appointed the new lighthouse keeper. He invented a new lamp that no longer allowed the lamp oil to harden in winter, received a patent for it and installed it in the towers. In 1849 he was dismissed for political reasons and then joined the gold rush in California .
In the 1850s, the lighthouses in the United States were gradually equipped with new Fresnel lenses , which significantly increased their luminosity and thus their efficiency. In 1859, the towers on Thacher Island and Cape Canaveral were the last that had not been upgraded. As part of this, two new, much higher towers were built on Thacher Island in 1861 and equipped with 1st order Fresnel lenses, each costing US $ 10,000 (today approx. US $ 299,000).
Tracks were installed in the late 1800s and later extended to a total length of around 150 m. In 1902 the island was connected to the telephone network with a view to national defense. In 1919, there was an almost disaster when the then US President Woodrow Wilson returned from Europe on board the USS George Washington , which was heading straight for Thacher Island in the thick fog despite the foghorn. Only at the last moment did the captain recognize the danger and turn away. Fog is very common in this position; In July 1959, the island's foghorn had to be kept in permanent operation for 211 hours.
In 1912 there were first considerations to shut down the northern tower. However, due to protests from fishermen, this was not implemented until 1932, after the luminosity of the south tower had been significantly increased. In 1948 ownership of the island passed to the United States Coast Guard .
In 1967 the island served briefly as a safe place to stay for Joseph "The Baron" Barboza , who testified as a witness against organized crime and was later included in the witness protection program.
On October 7, 1971, the ensemble was registered under the number 71000355 as a Historic District in the National Register of Historic Places . Since January 31, 2001, the district is also recognized as a National Historic Landmark .
In 1980 the south tower and foghorn were automated so that the coast guard could leave the island. As a result, the Thacher Island Association was founded to maintain the structures on the island.
See also
literature
- Jeremy D'Entremont: Thacher Island Twin Lights history - New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide. Retrieved March 14, 2017 (English, 1997-2017).
- Paul St. Germain: National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form. (PDF) United States Department of the Interior , National Park Service , December 9, 1998, accessed March 14, 2017 .
- Light List Volume I. (PDF) Department of Homeland Security , United States Coast Guard , 2017, p. 46 , accessed on March 14, 2017 .
Web links
- Cape Ann Light in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
- Cape Ann Lighthouse in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey
- Thacher Island Association website
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d cf. St. Germain, p. 5.
- ↑ a b cf. St. Germain, p. 6.
- ↑ cf. St. Germain, p. 7.
- ↑ a b cf. St. Germain, p. 8.
- ↑ cf. St. Germain, p. 9.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j cf. D'Entremont.
- ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved November 2, 2013.
- ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Massachusetts. National Park Service , accessed August 10, 2019.
