Notes:
(1) Wings Neck Light was built to aid Navigation in Buzzards Bay heading to ports in Wareham and Bourne.
      From 1914 to 1945, the Lighthouse aided the busy shipping traffic of the Cape Cod Canal.

      In 1627, the Pilgrims established the Aptucxet Trading Post on the southern bank of the Manamet River which flowed into Buzzards Bay.  Aptucxet was the first private commercial enterprise in America as a center of trade between the Plymouth Pilgrim colonists, the Wampanoag Indians, and the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam (New York).  A passage of two rivers, the Scusset River and Manamet River, separated by a two mile portage provided safe transportation of trade avoiding the dangerous circumnavigation of Cape Cod and foreign pirates.  Since 1914, the Manamet River has been the western end of the Cape Cod Canal.

      From Aptucxet’s safe location, the protected harbors at the head of Buzzards Bay were settled and shipbuilding and whaling industries developed alongside the fish and fur trade.  From 1798 to 1868, these industries prospered and by 1848, 30 whaling vessels sailed from Sippican and Wareham harbors at the head of Buzzards Bay.

      In 1848, funding was approved for a Lighthouse at Wings Neck*, a peninsula extending into Buzzards Bay from the village of Pocasset on Cape Cod, to mark Wings Neck for the safety of navigation approaching the harbors at the head of Buzzards Bay.  A wooden lantern room was built on the roof of a Cape Cod style stone Keeper’s house and First Lit in 1849.  Edward D. Lawrence was appointed as the first Lightkeeper and President Franklin Pierce terminated Keeper Lawrence in 1854 because he was not a Democrat.  In 1865, Edward D. Lawrence was reappointed Keeper and tended the Light until 1887.

      In 1856, the optics were refitted with a Fifth-order Fresnel Lens.  By the 1870s, the support beams of the roof barely carried the weight of a heavy Lantern Room and a fire damaged the Lighthouse in 1878.  Repairs kept the Light in service until 1889.  The present 33-feet high white hexagonal pyramidal wood Tower was built in 1889 exhibiting a Fixed White light illuminated by Fifth-order Fresnel Lens and oil lamp.  A separate 1-1/2 story Keeper’s house was also constructed and later, a walkway was built to connect the Tower to the house in 1899.

      In 1914, the illuminant of the lamp was changed from oil to incandescent oil vapor to increase the intensity of the Light for aiding navigation approaching the Cape Cod Canal that opened on July 29, 1914.  Cape Cod Canal saves an average 135 miles of risky open sea travel around the tip of Cape Cod by providing a safe navigation channel.  The wife of Lightkeeper Wallace Eldredge became a dispatcher for the canal, communicating ship arrivals to the Buzzards Bay canal office by phone.  The Ned Point Light Keeper’s house (built in 1888) from Mattapoisett was relocated to Wings Neck for an assistant Keeper’s house in 1923.

      In 1943, a Cape Cod Canal Traffic Light and Control Tower was built at Wings Neck with radar for the canal approach.  Today, the Wings Neck Traffic Light and Control Tower has been equipped with a closed-circuit television camera as part of the automated marine traffic monitoring system for the Cape Cod Canal.


      In 1945, the government determined Wings Neck Light was no longer a strategic Lighthouse after the construction of Cleveland Ledge Light marked the safe shipping channel approaching the Cape Cod Canal.  Wings Neck Light was sold as surplus to private owners, Frank and Irene Flanagan from West Roxbury, for $13,738 in 1947. Irene Flanagan was locally known as the “lady in the lighthouse.”

*Wenaumet Neck was renamed Wing’s Neck for Nathaniel Wing, one of five settlers of Pocasset village, who settled the neck after the King Philip’s War in 1677.  Pocasset (a Wampanoag Indian word meaning the “place that is clear”) was a village of Sandwich until 1884.  Harbors in Sandwich including Pocasset Harbor were not deep water ports capable of docking whaling ships.

(2) Replaced by Cleveland Ledge Light.

(3) Directions from Boston:
      Take MA-3 South (Southeast Expressway) to US-6 over the Sagamore Bridge to Exit 1 (Sagamore/Sandwich/National Cemetery).  Turn Left onto Sandwich Road (3-mi) to S Bourne Rotary.  Bear Right onto S Bourne Rotary and go West for 430-feet to SR-28 (Gen Macarthur Blvd, 3.3-mi).  Turn Right onto Barlows Landing Road (1.8 mi).  Turn Right onto Wings Neck Road and drive 2.4-miles to the cul-de-sac and the gate of the private Lighthouse.


      The view of the Lighthouse from the gate at the end of Wings Neck Road is limited and does not reveal its scenic surroundings.

      After the restoration in 2003, the 3-bedroom home with attached Light Tower is available year round for weekly rental with sleeping accommodations for 8 people.  The property is open to renters and their guests only.

For more information, contact: