Notes:
(1) Graves Lighthouse was built to mark the dangerous rocky ledges, The Graves, at the entrance of Boston North Channel into Boston Harbor for the safety of modern ships of deep draft.

      A group of hazardous ledges was named The Graves for Rear Admiral Thomas Graves by John Winthrop, the first Governor of Massachusetts, in 1653.  Thomas Graves was one of the settlers of Charleston (about 1636-37).  In 1643, he became the shipmaster of the Tryall, the first vessel built in Boston for foreign trade, on her second voyage between London & Boston.  Thomas Graves was appointed Rear Admiral of the British Royal Navy on May 30, 1652 and fought the Dutch in naval battles.

      In 1842, I.W.P. Lewis, Civil Engineer to the U.S. Light-house Survey, was surprised that there was no lighthouse on The Graves.  Later, a iron bell buoy was placed near the ledges in 1854.  Nantasket Roads was the principal shipping channel into Boston Harbor marked by Boston Lighthouse until 1900.  After the dredging of Boston North Channel improved navigation of deep-draft vessels in 1900, a Lighthouse was needed on the rocky ledges overlooking the entrance channel from Broad Sound.

      In 1902, Congress appropriated $188,000 for a Tower on Northeast Grave rock. The Tower’s location was changed to The Graves in 1903.  Graves Light was another Engineering triumph, comparable to the design of Minots Ledge Light, that used dovetailed interlocking Rockport Granite Blocks to withstand the powerful forces of the open ocean and storms.

      The architectural style of Graves Light and Ram Island Ledge Light, Portland, Maine which was also built from 1903 to 1905 is identical.  Construction material was transported from Lovell’s Island to The Graves as needed and the foundation 4-feet above the low tide plus the 42-feet of the Graves Tower was completed in the summer of 1903.

      During the summer of 1904, a granite oil house was built 90-feet south of the Tower, the Lighthouse was raised to a height of 88 feet, and a Fresnel lens was manufactured in Paris.  Construction was completed in 1905 and Elliot C. Hadley, the first Lightkeeper, First Lit Graves Light on September 1, 1905 exhibiting a Flashing White light illuminated by a First-order Fresnel lens and a 380,000 candlepower lamp.


      The Keepers Quarters were five levels integral within the Tower: a Storage Room on the first floor, a Fog Signal engine room on the second floor powered a Daboll fog trumpet, a Kitchen on the third floor, and Keepers’ Bedrooms were on the fourth and the fifth floors.  The Watch room and Lantern Room capped the Tower and a Lighthouse tender filled the fresh water cistern twice a year.

      A wharf connected to a 90-foot elevated walkway provided access to the Lighthouse.  Over the years, the walkway has been destroyed by storms and today, ANTs (Aid to Navigation Teams), who maintain the Light, are flown by helicopter that lands on a small platform near the Tower.

      Within the proximity of Graves Light, two notable shipwrecks occurred after a thick fog shut in suddenly:  On September 9, 1936, Captain Adelbert Wickens was guiding his 208 passenger steamer, Romance, towards Boston North Channel 1-mile north of Graves Lighthouse in poor visibility.  The steamer, New York, was departing from Boston Harbor using the same passage and struck the Romance just aft of the pilothouse plunging deep into the side of the smaller steamer.  Captain Litchfield held the New York in the breech preventing the Romance from sinking immediately allowing time to evacuate all survivors.

      On April 23, 1938, Captain William H. Lewis, a Boston Pilot, guided the 419-foot freighter, City of Salisbury, toward the outer harbor in limited visibility.  Lewis was positive of his position since Government charts showed 33-feet deep clear water northeast of Graves Ledge Light.  The vessel was shipwrecked on a uncharted pinnacle of rock, near the outer edge of The Graves Ledge.  Later, the Coast Guard cleared Captain Lewis of any wrong doing after finding that Government Chart #246 was incorrect.  For five months, the “Zoo Ship,” nicknamed for its cargo of zoo animals, was a tourist attraction until a October Northeaster sank the remains of the wreck.

      In 1976, Graves Light was automated and the Fresnel lens was replaced by a DCB 224 Aerobeacon powered by a electrical submarine cable from the town of Hull.  In June 2001, the electrical optic was refitted by an automatic solar-powered VRB-25 Vega Rotating lighthouse Beacon.

(2) Emergency light of reduced intensity when main light is extinguished.

(3) The original Fresnel Lens was moved to the Smithsonian, Washington, D.C.

(4) Directions:
     Graves Light is best viewed by boat or a Lighthouse Cruise.


      There are several vantage points along the coastline for distant views of the Lighthouse:
Traveling from North to South,
A) From Willow Road in Nahant (4-miles offshore),

B) From Shore Drive and Winthrop Beach in Winthrop (5.5-miles offshore) or

C) From Nantasket Beach in Hull (6-miles offshore).

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