If you’ve never been to the Marblehead Light, then it’s high time that you learned a bit about your area’s history. The light house is on Marblehead Neck in Essex County and is a structure that replaced the original 1835 brick and wood tower in 1895. It is actually the only tower of its type in New England and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

As it explains on Wikipedia, “In August 1831, the townspeople of Marblehead requested that a lighthouse be built at the entrance to the harbour. Congress granted the wish and a 23 foot (7m) high tower was built in 1835 and commissioned on October 10, 1835.^[3] This tower had an array of ten whale oil burning lamps inside an octagonal lantern.

In 1857, the old lamp system was replaced by a sixth order Fresnel lens and reflectors. Despite the upgrade and work on the tower and associated keepers’ house, the tower itself was in a poor condition and by 1893 a new light was requested. The new light was completed in 1895 at a cost of $8,786, the cost being much reduced by using a skeletal frame rather than rebuilding the old tower.”

Learn more about the light tower and more about Marblehead history today.