Newburyport Harbor (Plum Island) Lighthouse

Plum Island is a barrier island that shadows the Massachusetts’ shore for roughly nine miles between the mouth of the Merrimack River on the north and the mouth of the Ipswich River on the south. Fires were routinely set on the beach at the northern end of Plum Island to guide mariners into the Merrimack River until 1783, when the Marine Society of Newburyport erected two official day beacons and employed men to display lanterns on them at night.

Octagonal Plum Island Lighthouse replaced in 1898
Photograph courtesy National Archives
When these methods proved insufficient, the Massachusetts Assembly gave its approval on November 16, 1787 for the erection of two lighthouses, each with a fixed white light thirty-seven feet above sea level, on the north end of nine-mile-long “Plumb Island,” provided the sum “did not exceed £300 lawful money.” When first lit on April 14, 1788, the lights became the thirteenth lighthouse built in the United States, and were likely the country’s first set of range lights. The merchants of Newburyport paid for the construction cost, which came to £266.
A year after navigational aids fell under federal jurisdiction in 1789, President George Washington appointed Abner Lowell as keeper of Plum Island Range Lights, and it may be that Lowell had been keeping the lights since their inception. Keeper Lowell was a kindly man known by many as “Uncle,” and was the first of three generations of Lowells to man the lights.

In addition to the range lights, a keeper’s dwelling was also built along with a signal house, where flags were raised to alert those on the mainland when a pilot was required or a ship was in distress. At night and during reduced visibility, an alarm gun provided by the Merrimack Humane Society was sounded to call for assistance.
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