The tower on which the light stands, which seemed at a distance to be white, is in reality red, being made of pressed brick, and capped with freestone; it is forty feet high, and surmounted by an
Gay Head Light
2012
May 10, 2012
As erosion inches the Gay Head Lighthouse closer to the edge, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum is moving ahead with a study to assess the urgency of relocating the 156-year-old structure.
The study will take place over the course of three years and provide a “more realistic” prediction of what the long-term needs are for the area, museum director David Nathans said yesterday.
1998
August 21, 1998
Lighthouses define the character of Martha’s Vineyard. They guide people from land and sea to the same shorelines, sheltering them under beacons of home.
Today, the Island’s lighthouses are deteriorating. Bricks are crumbling in the breeze, and iron is flaking away in the salt air. Before long, these landmarks could be reduced to brittle, rotting shells.
1952
September 19, 1952
When the good ship Uncle Toby brought the new Fresnel lens to New York and the lens was subsequently deposited at the Edgartown wharf, almost a hundred years ago, little did the drivers, or anyone else for that matter, dream that the forty yoke oxen employed to transport the lens across the Island to Gay Head would not be the last agents to ever move the sixty frames of glass prisms and the multitudinous collection of machinery necessary to operate the light. This week all of these things were back in Edgartown.
1859
October 28, 1859
The tower on which the light stands, which seemed at a distance to be white, is in reality red, being made of pressed brick, and capped with freestone; it is forty feet high, and surmounted by an iron frame in which is set the glass of the outer lantern; through the centre passes a large circular iron shaft, on the top of which stands the cylinder containing the oil, and around which revolves the lantern itself.
1856
November 14, 1856
Notice to Mariners. - The new light at Gay Head will be exhibited at sunset on December 1st, 1856, and will be kept burning during every night thereafter from sunset to sunrise. The focal plane of the light is 43 feet above the ground and 170 feet above the level of the sea. The tower is of brick, colored brown, and stands about 12 feet from the centre of the rear of the dwelling houses, with which it is connected. The lantern is painted black. The dwelling houses are brick color.
1853
August 13, 1853
We learn from Samuel Flanders, Esq., that a light house is to be erected at Gay Head the coming fall. It is to be located about five or six rods back of the present one. The light, at an altitude of 60 feet, will be seen by mariners over Noman’s Land, which will be of great service. A new dwelling house is also to be erected. An appropriation of $13,000 was made at the last session of Congress to cover the expense of constructing these buildings.
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