History Of Ned's Point Lighthouse

NED’S POINT LIGHT SIGNIFICANT DATES

1837       Construction of the lighthouse and buildings

1838       March 20 or 21: Lighting of lamps for the first time

1857       Fresnel lens of the Fifth-Order lens installed

1888       The stone light keeper’s house replaced by a wood frame structure

• Tower rebuilt

1896       New lantern installed

1923       Keeper’s house floated on a barge to Wing’s Neck, Pocasset.  Light now automated. 

1939       Town voted not to buy “Ned’s Point Lighthouse Reservation” for $7,000.

• S. Lighthouse Service merged with the U.S. Coast Guard

1949       Committee formed to try again to buy reservation from the federal government.

1952 Town of Mattapoisett obtained title to “Ned’s Point Light-House Reservation” for $3,000.

• The reservation renamed “Veterans of Mattapoisett Memorial Park.”
• Coast Guard retained structure as well as .17 of an acre of land and a right of way.

1952-1961            Coast Guard decommissioned the light for 9 years

                Note: Although Ned’s Point Light was decommissioned from 1952 to 1961, a newspaper article written in 1957 stated that the Coast Guard “keeps it in operation from April 15 through October 15.”

1961       Coast Guard installed the present lens.

1988       Formal approval of listing Ned’s Point Lighthouse in the National Register of Historic Places.

1993       Adopted by Flotilla 67, First District Northern Region