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Cape Poge Lighthouse, Massachusetts

On the windswept northeastern point of Chappaquiddick Island, the Cape Poge Lighthouse has guided ships into Edgartown Harbor on Martha’s Vineyard for over 200 years. Cape Poge is subject to the continuous forces of erosion requiring the lighthouse to be rebuilt or moved nine times during its history.
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At the turn of the nineteenth century, whaling was a huge business for Martha’s Vineyard and Edgartown served as the home port for giant fleet of whaling ships.  In January 1801 Congress appropriated $2,000 to establish a lighthouse on Cape Poge on Chappaquiddick Island to help guide ships into the harbor.
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At the turn of the nineteenth century, whaling was a huge business for Martha’s Vineyard and Edgartown served as the home port for giant fleet of whaling ships. In January 1801 Congress appropriated $2,000 to establish a lighthouse on Cape Poge on Chappaquiddick Island to help guide ships into the harbor.

0708CapePogueLight

  • At the turn of the nineteenth century, whaling was a huge business for Martha’s Vineyard and Edgartown served as the home port for giant fleet of whaling ships.  In January 1801 Congress appropriated $2,000 to establish a lighthouse on Cape Poge on Chappaquiddick Island to help guide ships into the harbor.
  • Four acres of land were purchased on the northeast corner of Chappaquiddick for a lighthouse reservation.  A local contractor, Duncan McBean, was hired to construct the first Cape Poge Lighthouse.  The tower was a 35-foot octagonal shingled wooden tower with a diameter of 19 feet at the base and seven feet at the top.  In addition to the lighthouse, a small two room Keepers dwelling was also erected near the tower.
  • Thomas Jefferson appointed Matthew Mayhew as the first Keeper of the Cape Poge Light.  Mayhew lived in the 2-room dwelling with his wife and, eventually, eight children.  Martha’s Vineyard’s second lighthouse went into operation in December 1801.
  • The original optic in the Cape Poge lantern was a spider lamp which exhibited a fixed white light 55 feet above sea level.  This was replaced by Winslow Lewis in 1812 with modified Argand oil lamps and reflectors.
  • By 1825 Keeper Mayhew reported that due to erosion two of the original four acres of the lighthouse station had been washed away and the Keepers house was in danger of going over the cliff.  In response, the government purchased 4 additional acres of land.  Mayhew’s brother was hired to move the house further inland.
  • Keeper Mayhew passed away in December 1834.  Before his successor, Lott Norton, arrived at the station, the schooner Hudson was wrecked in a storm off of Cape Poge with the loss of all passengers and crew.
  • By 1836 the lighthouse tower stood only 40 feet from the edge of the cliff.  A stone retaining wall was built under the cliff to combat the effects of erosion, but in 1838 the tower was moved further inland.
  • By the 1840’s the old tower was in a terrible dilapidated state.  In 1844 Winslow Lewis was hired to build a new wooden tower for $1,600.  The tower was connected to the old Keepers dwelling by an enclosed walkway.  In 1857 the tower received a new lantern and had a 4th Order Fresnel lens installed as the new optic.
  • As the years passed at Cape Poge, the erosion continued.  In 1878 the Light House Board predicted the house would fall over the cliff within two years.  Another 4 acres of land were purchased for the lighthouse property.  In 1880 a new Keepers duplex was built on the new land for $5,000.
  • In 1893 a new 55-foot wooden framed tower was erected forty feet further inland as a temporary structure, but this is the tower which survives today.  The tower has subsequently been moved 4 times, first in 1907, then 1922, 1960 and finally in 1987 when it was moved 500 feet by a U.S Army helicopter.  After the 1987 move, the Fresnel lens was replaced by a plastic modern optic in the lantern.
  • **Old lighthouse foundation on the beach** 	In 1898 the lantern received a new 6 panel flashing 4th Order Chance Brothers lens changing the light’s characteristic to a flashing red and white light.
  • The Cape Poge Lighthouse was eventually automated in 1943 and Keeper Joseph Dubois was removed from the station.  The Keeper’s house was used by a U.S.C.G. shore patrol during World War II.  In 1954 the house was sold to a Chappaquiddick resident who tore down the structure for its lumber.
  • In 1997 the lighthouse received some much-needed TLC when the lantern was removed by helicopter to the mainland, where it was sandblasted, re-painted and windows were replaced.  After two months, the lantern was returned to the tower
  • Today the Cape Poge Lighthouse rests on land in the Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge managed by a group known as the Trustees of Reservations.  They have maintained the lighthouse tower since 1994.
  • The Trustees manage over 500 acres of land on Chappaquiddick and offer public programs to explore the refuge.  See www.thetrustees.org for information on their programs.
  • I highly recommend taking the ‘On Time Ferry’ over to Chappaquiddick and taking one of the lighthouse tours offered by the Trustees of Reservations.  It is an adventure traveling by 4 wheeled vehicle out to desolate Cape Poge to learn about its role in maritime history.
  • Old postcard view of the Cape Poge Lighthouse
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