Long Point Light

By an act of Congress on May 18, 1826, the United States Government earmarked $2,500 to acquire {{convert|4|acre|km2}} at the extreme tip of Long Point, and to establish a lighthouse to guide mariners into the busy fishing port of Provincetown Harbor. In comparing the relative share of the gross domestic product (GDP), or "nominal GDP",{{Cite web |first=Samuel H. |last=Williamson |website=MeasuringWorth |title=Nominal GDP |url=https://www.measuringworth.com/glossary/nominalgdp.html |quote=Nominal GDP: GDP expressed in current market prices, which is GDP not corrected for inflation. This may also be called 'money GDP', 'current-price GDP' or 'GDP at current prices'. Nominal GDP over time incorporates both real-output change and price change (inflation). |access-date=8 November 2014 }} that's the equivalent of today's Congress allocating $48 million in 2013 dollars.{{Cite web |first=Samuel H. |last=Williamson |title=Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount, 1774 to present |website=MeasuringWorth |date=April 2014 |access-date=8 November 2014 |url=http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/result.php?year_source=1826&amount=2500&year_result=2013 |archive-date=8 November 2014 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141108104604/http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/result.php?year_source=1826&amount=2500&year_result=2013 |url-status=dead }}

File:Long Point Light--Original built 1827.jpg" light and keeper's house, c. 1830]]

Completed in 1827, the original Long Point Light was not a tower structure, but rather consisted of an octagonal lantern centered on the peak of the roof of the wooden keeper's house. Access to the lantern was by a spiral stair from the top floor of the house. That architectural style, common to several of Cape Cod's early 19th century lighthouses, came to be known as the "Cape Cod style" – today, however, "classic" examples of that style can only be found along the Pacific Coast.{{cite web|title=Long Point, MA|url=https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=490|publisher=LighthouseFriends.com|access-date=15 February 2014|quote=As there were similar lighthouses of this style built on the cape during the early 19th century, they came to be known as the 'Cape Cod style.' Unfortunately, no lighthouse of this design remains on the cape today.}}

The lantern was lit by a sixth-order Fresnel lens in 1856. By 1873, a lighthouse inspector's report noted substantial erosion, exposed wooden pilings, and poor overall condition of the light station, expressing concern that a strong storm could carry it away. Shortly thereafter, the Lighthouse Board decided to replace the entire structure. The present-day {{convert|38|ft|adj=on}} tall, square brick lighthouse and a one-and-one-half-story keeper's dwelling to its south were completed in 1875. The lighthouse included a larger, fifth-order Fresnel lens, and a {{convert|1200|lb|adj=on}} fog bell was installed to the north of the tower. In 1904, the station received an oil house for properly storing flammable materials used for illumination.{{cite web|title=Long Point Light|url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/lpt.htm

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123001921/http://www.nps.gov/nr//travel/maritime/lpt.htm

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=November 23, 2008

|work=Maritime History of Massachusetts, a National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=4 March 2012}} In 1927, the intensity of the light was reduced to 29,000 candlepower.{{cite uscghist|MA}}

Long Point Light underwent automation in 1952, and a modern optic replaced the Fresnel lens. In 1982, Long Point Light became the second lighthouse in Massachusetts to be equipped with solar panels to power the light and fog signal equipment. The abandoned keeper's dwelling and fog signal building were demolished around the same time.

The Long Point Light Station was added to the National Historic Register in 1987. The light and its 1904 oil house are the only structures left on Long Point, which is now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

{{main|Long Point (Cape Cod)}}

From its inception in 1827 until the late 1850s, the lighthouse shared the peninsula with a thriving village of Long Point. By 1830, the lighthouse became the site of Long Point's first school, starting with only three children.{{cite book|last=Jennings|first=Herman A.|title=Provincetown or Odds and Ends From the Tip End|year=1890|publisher=Peaked Hill Press|pages=78 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VXdHAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA76 }} The village grew to include the homes of 38 fishing families, a schoolhouse with up to 60 children, a post office, bakery, boat landings, breakwaters, and several saltworks which utilized windmills to pump seawater.

For various reasons, the settlement was ultimately disbanded. Most of the families took their houses with them when they left — the houses were placed on rafts and floated across the harbor to Provincetown's West End. Several of those historic "floater" homes are still standing, and can be identified by looking for the distinctive blue and white plaques.{{cite news|last=Gehrman|first=Elizabeth|title=Solitude, sunscreen, and a long stretch of sand (almost) all to yourself|url=http://articles.boston.com/2007-08-05/travel/29228979_1_pilgrim-monument-provincetown-museum-beaches|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130118233738/http://articles.boston.com/2007-08-05/travel/29228979_1_pilgrim-monument-provincetown-museum-beaches|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 18, 2013|access-date=12 February 2012|newspaper=The Boston Globe|date=5 August 2007}}

{{stack|File:Long Point Light and Outer Battery.jpg.]]}}

{{main|Long Point (Cape Cod)}}

Around the middle of the American Civil War, in 1863, the Union Army constructed fortifications called the Long Point Battery. It consisted of two earthwork artillery batteries, with a total of nine {{convert|32|lb|kg|adj=on}} guns between them, plus a barracks to house a company of 98 soldiers, an officer's quarters, and stables.{{cite web|url=http://naelibrary.nae.usace.army.mil/dp192/nae97051.pdf |title=Conclusions and Recommendations for the former Long Point Battery, Provincetown, MA; Project Number D01MA054901 |publisher=US Army Corps of Engineers |work=Defense Environmental Restoration Program for Formerly Used Defense Sites Ordnance and Explosive Waste |access-date=25 May 2012 |date=January 1997 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040308064635/http://naelibrary.nae.usace.army.mil/dp192/nae97051.pdf |archive-date=8 March 2004 }}

The base was operational until 1872, but never saw any combat action – as a result, local residents took to calling the batteries "Fort Useless" and "Fort Ridiculous".{{cite web|title=Historical Timeline of Provincetown, Massachusetts|url=http://www.provincetown-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/874|publisher=Town of Provincetown|access-date=1 May 2012|format=PDF|archive-date=8 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130408120407/http://www.provincetown-ma.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/874|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|last=Cunningham|first=Michael |author-link=Michael Cunningham |title=Land's end: a walk through Provincetown|year=2002|publisher=Crown journeys|location=New York|isbn=9780609609071|pages=37|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=in5Wke5k8owC&pg=PA37|edition=1st|access-date=15 May 2012|quote=... as volunteers stood guard day after day and night after night over an uncontested stretch of salt water, the fortresses came to be known as Fort Useless and Fort Ridiculous.}}

Currently the U.S. Coast Guard owns and controls Provincetown's three lighthouses (Long Point Light, Wood End Light, and Race Point Light). It is leased to{{cite web | url =https://www.nps.gov/history/Maritime/light/longpt.htm | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070625180238/http://www.nps.gov/history/maritime/light/longpt.htm | url-status =dead | archive-date =June 25, 2007 | title = Inventory of Historic Lighthouses-- Massachusetts-- Long Point Light | access-date = 2012-03-07 | publisher = National Park Service }} and maintained by the Cape Cod Chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation. The grounds are open to the public, and the lighthouse tower is closed.

In December 2009, preservationists proposed to rebuild the keeper's house as a bed and breakfast similar to the operation at Race Point. The Coast Guard's lease is due to expire in 2015, and local officials speculate that the property could be turned over to the National Park Service, which maintains and operates the National Seashore.{{cite news|last=Sowers|first=Pru|title=Provincetown lighthouse restoration project moves ahead|url=http://www.wickedlocal.com/provincetown/news/x664194947/Provincetown-lighthouse-restoration-project-moves-ahead#ixzz1mBgd9tj4|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130209171122/http://www.wickedlocal.com/provincetown/news/x664194947/Provincetown-lighthouse-restoration-project-moves-ahead%23ixzz1mBgd9tj4|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 9, 2013|access-date=12 February 2012|newspaper=The Provincetown Banner|date=28 December 2009}}

The secluded beach by the lighthouse can be reached by renting a small boat at Land's End or using the Long Point Beach Ferry, a 20-minute shuttle from MacMillian Pier or from the Boatyard dock in the West End. It is also possible to hike out, along the Provincetown Causeway and then along the beach, a three-mile distance each way.{{Cite web|url=https://admiralslanding.com/blog/long-point-provincetown/|title=Take in the Breathtaking Views at Long Point in Provincetown!|access-date=2017-04-02|archive-date=2017-04-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403110620/https://admiralslanding.com/blog/long-point-provincetown/|url-status=dead}}

{{gallery|mode=packed|align=center|height=150

|File:Long Point Lighthouse MA.jpg|The second light, built 1875 (still in use) and keeper's house (since removed)

|File:Point lighthouse, by Nickerson, G. H. (George Hathaway), 1835-1890.jpg | Stereoscopic photo of the 2nd light, shortly after it was built (note the dark brick)

|File:Longpointlight125.jpg |1947 colorized postcard, a reprint of the 1909 version (also on this page).

|File:Ptown Floater Plaque.jpg|Houses bearing this plaque were in the Long Point settlement, and were floated across the harbor

|File:Long Point Lighthouse Provincetown.JPG|View of Long Point from downtown, 2012

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Attribution

{{NPS|title=Maritime History of Massachusetts, a National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary -- Long Point Light |url=http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/lpt.htm | accessdate=2012-03-03}}

{{commons category|Long Point Light}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071101233619/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/maritime/index.htm Maritime History of Massachusetts, a National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary], National Park Service

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts}}

{{Lighthouses of Massachusetts}}

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Category:Lighthouses completed in 1827

Category:Lighthouses completed in 1875

Category:Houses completed in 1875

Category:Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

Category:Lighthouses in Barnstable County, Massachusetts

Category:Provincetown, Massachusetts

Category:Houses completed in 1827

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable County, Massachusetts

Category:1827 establishments in Massachusetts