Wood End Lighthouse, Cape Cod, Provincetown, Massachusetts
Built in 1872.
WOOD END LIGHT
Location: NORTH OF CAPE COD HARBOR
Station Established: 1864
Year Current/Last Tower(s) First Lit: 1873
Operational? YES
Automated? YES 1960
Deactivated: n/a
Foundation Materials: CONCRETE
Construction Materials: BRICK
Tower Shape: SQUARE
Markings/Pattern: WHITE W/BLACK LANTERN
Relationship to Other Structure: SEPARATE
Original Lens: FOURTH ORDER, FRESNEL 1873
Historical Information:
* 1872 - $15,000 appropriated by Congress for the lighthouse station.
* 1896 – A second keeper’s house, an oil house and a shed added to the station.
* 1902 – Fog bell tower, complete with 1,000 pound bell, built.
* 1911 – Stone breakwater built, allowing more direct access between the light station and the town at low tide.
* 1927 – The Navy submarine S-4 and Coast Guard Cutter Paulding collided ½ mile south of the lighthouse, killing 42 men.
* 1961 – Lighthouse automated and all outbuildings, except the oil house, razed. Fifth order lens replaced by aero-beacon.
* 1979 – Station turned over to the U.S. Navy.
* 1981 – Lighthouse converted to solar power.
Keepers:
* Thomas Lowe (1872-1897)
* Philip R. Smith (1897-?)
* George H. Fitzpatrick (c. 1940s)
* George Grimes (c. 1940s)
Researched and written by Marie Vincent, a volunteer through the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.