Avery Point Lighthouse

Oct. 31, 2019
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Avery Point Lighthouse, Groton, Connecticut

Built in 1944.

AVERY POINT LIGHT

Location: Connecticut, on the University of Connecticut Avery Point Campus (near Groton)
Date Built: 1944 on the grounds of the Coast Guard Training Station at Avery Point, Groton, CT.
Rebuilt:
Height:
Characteristic: Ceremonial light tower - also used as an active aid to navigation from 1945 through 1967.  Initially it was a fixed white light.  On 3 March 1960 the characteristic was changed to flashing green as a part of a cluster of eight lights.**
Foghorn: N/A
Decommissioned: 25 June 1967 when the Coast Guard moved its training facility to Governor's Island.

**Information provided by the Avery Point Lighthouse Society

Historical Information:

  • 1940: This lighthouse was constructed as a memorial tower, a symbol of the Coast Guard's lightkeeping responsibility.  (It was also built, according to the Avery Point Lighthouse Society, "to fulfill a contingency of the Quit Claim deed for receiving the property from the State of Connecticut…It was the last lighthouse built in the state of Connecticut.")
  • 1967: The light was extinguished. No maintenance or upkeep has been done since then.
  • 1997: It has been placed on the "Doomsday List" compiled by the magazine, Lighthouse Digest, as of December 1997.