Lighthouse Point & Five Mile Point Light

COLLECTION HISTORY

The people behind the place.

Five Mile Point’s first lighthouse was a wooden tower built in 1805. The stone tower followed in 1847. Keeping those dates separate explains why accounts may give different ages for the lighthouse site and the surviving tower. [CT052-S01]

The light was superseded in navigation by Southwest Ledge in 1877. Its later life as a landmark within a recreational landscape shows how a working maritime structure can take on new civic meaning. Historical views and modern photographs record different phases of that transition. [CT052-S01]

The lighthouse story contains several beginnings. A wooden light opened in 1805; the stone tower followed in 1847. A photograph of the stone structure cannot show the original wooden building, even when a caption correctly dates the light station to 1805. This distinction connects architecture to the practical task of navigation while keeping the surviving object's own age clear. [CT052-S01]

Southwest Ledge superseded Five Mile Point's navigational role in 1877. The older tower's continued visibility allowed it to take on another life within a recreational landscape. Historical and later photographs can therefore be compared as evidence of changing surroundings and public uses. The tower becomes a way to tell a longer waterfront story: first a working aid to passage, then a recognizable landmark. Navigation records, park documents and visitors' accounts each illuminate a different part of that transition. [CT052-S01]