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Before there was a lighthouse at Five Mile Point in New Haven, Connecticut, the spot was noted for a battle in the American Revolution, when American riflemen repelled a British attempt to land and invade New Haven. British Ensign and Assistant Adjutant Watkins was killed in the skirmish and was buried close to where the lighthouse now stands.
Built in 1805 to help guide mariners into the city’s busy harbor, New Haven’s first lighthouse was an octagonal 30-foot wooden tower. It was commonly called Five Mile Point Light after its distance from downtown New Haven. From the start the light was considered too low and too dim. In 1845 Fifth Auditor Steven Pleasanton recommended the building of a new lighthouse on nearby Southwest Ledge, but this was deemed too expensive.
Finally in 1847 a new lighthouse was built for $10,000 on the same spot as the first. The 65-foot tower was built of sandstone quarried in nearby East Haven, with a brick lining. A system of lamps and reflectors was replaced in 1855 by a fourth order Fresnel lens, and a fog bell was added in the 1860s. A brick keeper’s house still stands near the tower, now occupied by a retired New Haven police officer.
With improvements in lighthouse engineering, a lighthouse on Southwest Ledge became a reality, rendering Five Mile Point Light obsolete. On January 1, 1877, Southwest Ledge Light was turned on for the first time and Five Mile Point Light was extinguished. Five Mile Point Lighthouse became the property of the War Department until 1922, when it was transferred to the city of New Haven. In 1949 the tower was painted and Lighthouse Point Park was opened.
A $67,000 renovation was completed in 1986. The interior and exterior of the tower were steam-cleaned and decades of guano was removed from the stairs. Plexiglas was installed in the lantern room and chips in the tower were repaired.
Today the old lighthouse tower stands near a carousel and New Haven’s only public swimming beach. The grounds are open year-round but the tower is normally closed. But there’s some good news. In October 2002 the Lighthouse Point Park Rangers started offering tours of the lighthouse on a limited, reservations-only basis. Among the first to tour the tower was lighthouse buff Ed Skvorc, a former resident of nearby West Haven.
“The tower is in remarkable shape inside given its age,” reports Skvorc. “Some of the interior bricks are crumbling, but everything is sound. The granite stairs are similar to the ones at the Stonington [CT] Lighthouse museum. There is a new cable handrail added and interior lights also. At the top there is a landing with a ladder to the lantern room. The metal ladder is new.”
“There is no hatch cover in the lantern room,” says Skvorc, “just a piece of plywood to keep visitors from falling down the hole. There is a copper floor in the lantern room. There is a hole shaped like a slot in the floor, probably for the clockwork weights that once turned the lens. The iron bracket for the flagpole is still visible on the gallery. The interior of the lantern room has wainscoting but it is covered with graffiti.”
All in all, the tower is holding up quite well, says Skvorc. “The structure seems very sound for its age and surprisingly weathertight. The view was great!” Sue Villani, another local lighthouse fan who toured the tower, added, “It was a beautiful day and we could even see Faulkner’s Island with binoculars.”
The half-hours tours, offered on three different afternoons in October, were very quickly booked. The rangers asked that all visitors be at least 48 inches tall and in good enough physical condition to climb the 73 steps to the top. There are plans to offer more tours in the future; call 203-946-8790 for information.
This story appeared in the
January 2003 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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