Cleveland East Ledge Light
Structure
The lighthouse is built atop a caisson 52 feet in diameter, which also contains the lighthouse's engine room. The first two floors of the lighthouse serve as living and working space, on top of which sits the cylindrical concrete tower which is another 50 feet tall.
History
The lighthouse was built between 1940 and 1943 after a re-dredging of the Cape Cod Canal in the late 1930s, which allowed larger ships to pass through and necessitated the marking of Cleveland East Ledge, which sits quite close to the path of ships approaching the south entrance to the canal. The state of Massachusetts began the project, but in 1941 turned it over to the Coast Guard, which, after delays caused by the war, completed it in 1943.
In 1978, the laying of an underwater cable to the lighthouse allowed its automation, obviating the need for the 4-man Coast Guard crew which had manned the light since its 1943 inauguration. The lighthouse was sealed and would remain unoccupied for much of the next 3 decades, apart from a 3-week renovation by the Coast Guard in 1990. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Cleveland Ledge Light Station in 1987.
Without regular maintenance, the lighthouse fell into disrepair. After putting the lighthouse on the market in 2007 generated very little interest, the General Services Administration put the lighthouse up for auction in October 2010. The bidding lasted into December. The winning party purchased the lighthouse for $190,000. It is now owned by the Cleveland Ledge Lighthouse, LLC.
See also
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ Light List, Volume I, Atlantic Coast, St. Croix River, Maine to Shrewsbury River, New Jersey (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2009. p. 143.
- ^ "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Massachusetts". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on 2017-05-01.
- ^ Rowlett, Russ (2009-12-16). "Lighthouses of the United States: Southeast Massachusetts". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- ^ "Cleveland Ledge Lighthouse". Retrieved 27 February 2016.