Spectacle Island Range Lights

Spectacle Island Range Lights, Spectacle Island, Boston Harbor, Boston, Massachusetts

Built in 1897.

SPECTACLE ISLAND RANGE LIGHTS

Location: INNER BOSTON HARBOR, NORTHEAST PART OF SPECTACLE ISLAND, NEAR BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Station Established: 1897
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1897
Operational? YES
Automated? N/A
Deactivated: 1913
Foundation Materials: MASONRY
Construction Materials: WOOD
Tower Shape: OCTAGONAL
Markings/Pattern: WHITE ON LOWER AND UPPER THIRDS, RED IN THE MIDDLE
Relationship to Other Structure: SEPARATE
Original Lens: UNKNOWN

Historical Information:

* In 1892 the Lighthouse Board made a case for range lights on Spectacle Island. The money was appropriated in 1895 and the lights were lit on May 20, 1897.
* The Spectacle Range Lights were often confused with the Broad Sound Channel Inner Range Lights which were built on the same island in 1903.
* In 1904 the Spectacle Lights were moved 15 feet to the South onto new masonry foundations. The towers were repainted. The lower and upper thirds were painted white while the middle third was painted red.
* In 1913 it was decided that the Spectacle Range lights were obsolete. The shipping channel had moved and the lights no longer served their purpose. Local groups protested believing it was the Broad Sound lights that were going to be extinguished. It was clarified which lights were going to be deactivated and the lights were extinguished on July 15, 1913.
* The lights have been destroyed but many cruises out of Boston pass the island.

Researched and written by Melissa Buckler, a volunteer through the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.