Long Point Light II
Long Point Light. [2009, Dunlap]
[2008, Dunlap]
Long Point Light complex, photographed by W. M. Smith around 1880. [Scrapbooks of Althea Boxell 10:68 / Dowd Collection / Provincetown History Preservation Project Page 4611]
[Author’s collection]
“Note three-masters passing behind the point,” Boxell wrote. [Scrapbooks of Althea Boxell 7:92 / Dowd Collection / Provincetown History Preservation Project Page 2118]
Pier pilings in the foreground. [2008, Dunlap]
The old oil house in the foreground. [2008, Dunlap]
An aerial view shows the lighthouse — and the tremendous accretion of sand at the very tip of Cape Cod. [2010, Dunlap]
[2011, Dunlap]
[2009, Dunlap]
Text last updated in 2015 | The current lighthouse — a 38-foot-high tapering brick tower whose green beacon flashes a welcome to Provincetown Harbor every four seconds — was constructed in 1876.
Today, only the nearby oil house remains of a larger complex that once existed around the tower, including a keeper’s house, a fog bell enclosure almost as tall as the lighthouse, and a boat house. These were sold off in 1952, after the light was automated. Today, the lighthouse is owned by the Coast Guard but licensed to the American Lighthouse Foundation, which cares for it.
In the annual Provincetown Harbor Swim for Life & Paddler Flotilla each September, some 300 participants raise money for local groups involved in AIDS care, women’s health and youth services. The first swim, a kind of aquatic AIDS Walk, was organized in 1988 by Jay Critchley and Walter McLean. The Long Point lighthouse serves as the backdrop for the beginning of this festive event.
¶ Republished on 28 December 2023.
