Bird Island was an ideal place to establish a lighthouse that would serve to guide mariners to Sippican Harbor and points north. Congress appropriated $11,500 on March 3, 1819, for three separate aids to navigation, including a lighthouse on Bird Island.

A conical rubblestone tower was constructed, 25 feet tall, with an 18-foot diameter at the base, and a 10-foot diameter at the top. A 12-foot- tall iron lantern surmounted the tower. The accompanying stone dwelling was 20 by 34 feet, and a covered walkway connected the house and tower. William S. Moore, a veteran of the War of 1812, was appointed as the first keeper, and the light went into operation on September 1, 1819.

A severe storm struck the area at the end of December 1819, devastating the new light station. Keeper Moore, who lost his boat and a large supply of wood, described the damage in a letter to Dearborn:

A very violent gale . . . has swept away every thing moveable from the island; and among other things my boat. . . . I was under the necessity of removing with my family into the light house, as the seas breaking against the dwelling house, threatened to fill the low part. . . . In the course of being at sea, I have experienced much severe weather, particularly the tornadoes of Africa, and other tropical climates, and they hardly exceed the violence of this gale for a short time.

Local legend claims that Keeper Moore was a pirate and that he was banished to Bird Island as punishment. He is said to have been left without a boat, with supplies delivered periodically. Some accounts claim that Moore murdered his wife at the lighthouse and disappeared soon after. A gun was found in a secret hiding place, along with a bag of tobacco, when the original keeper's house was torn down around 1890. The gun was believed by some to be the murder weapon. Others claim that he prevented his ailing wife from seeking medical attention on the mainland, and that she died as a result.

Keeper Moore claimed that his wife died of the effects of tobacco. Although she is supposedly buried on the island there is no sign of the grave today. When the gun was found, a note was also found that was signed by Keeper Moore. It blamed certain local residents for providing the tobacco that he said had killed his "Dearly Loved" wife.

According to an article by Lawrence Romaine in the bulletin of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, letters from Keeper Moore to the Massachusetts superintendent of lighthouses show that the keeper conducted experiments with the heating of whale oil to keep it from freezing in the winter months. He also worked on the development of "air boxes" to be stored on boats to help prevent sinking. In his letter on this subject he mentions his boat on the island, adding further reason to doubt that he was being held prisoner at the lighthouse.

In a letter dated February 25, 1821, Moore explained that he had served in the Army during the War of 1812. After the war he was accused of owing money to the Army, a charge he denied, although he did admit to careless accounting. In the letter Moore asks the superintendent that he be allowed to remain at Bird Island where he could pursue his various experiments, explaining "...as the keeping of a lighthouse is calculated to afford me more leisure than almost any other employment, I shall give it up with great regret."

Was he a pirate or an amateur inventor? The truth about Keeper Moore will probably never be separated from the fantastic legends concerning his life. But his wife did definitely die on the island, and there are those who say it has been haunted or cursed ever since. According to an article in the New Bedford Standard Times, legend has it that some later keepers were frightened "by the ghost of a hunched-over old woman, rapping at the door during the night."

Bird Island Light was one of the few lighthouses at that time to receive a revolving optic. Its light was as powerful as that at Gay Head, considered a much more important location. Lighthouse inspector Lt. Edward Carpender recommended in 1838 that its 10 lamps and reflectors be reduced to six.

Keeper John Clark wrote in 1843 that there was a well on the island, but no water. He had to make a two mile boat trip to get drinking water, and all laundry had to be washed on the mainland. He also complained that the tower was leaky and the wood "all more or less rotted." He said the "whole light-house is in a bad state, and I think was not built in a faithful and workmanlike manner." Engineer I.W.P. Lewis agreed that the "construction of the house and tower evinces a great want of fidelity on the part of the contractor, and renders complete and thorough repairs necessary."

In 1856, a fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed. The 1863 annual report of the Lighthouse Board reported that a new lantern had been installed.

The 1889 annual report of the Lighthouse Board contained the following confusing entry on Bird Island: "Measures are in progress for rebuilding the dwelling and tower surmounting it." The house was certainly rebuilt at this time, but the tower at Bird Island never surmounted the dwelling. This statement by the Lighthouse Board seems to account for the common belief that the lighthouse was rebuilt in 1889. The present tower appears to have survived from 1819. The lantern and deck were again replaced in 1899, and various other repairs were made at that time.

 

 

In 1940, the island was sold at auction to a private party. Since 1966 the property has been owned by the town of Marion. Bird Island is now considered an important nesting site for endangered roseate terns. Bird Island Light was relighted briefly in 1976. In 1994 a new effort was mounted when the Bird Island Lighthouse Preservation Society was formed, led by Chairman Charles Bradley. The Society raised funds privately and secured a federal grant, and the lighthouse tower was restored by International Chimney Corp. of Buffalo, NY.

U.S. Coast Guard photo; notice the fog bell tower at the right

Rubble from the foundation of the keeper's house, seen from the top of the tower in April 2004. The square structure at the left was a cistern.

Bird Island Light before restoration. Photo by Patricia Evenson.

The granite stairs inside the tower. The wooden boxes on the stairs are nesting boxes for the rare roseate terns that nest on Bird Island.

A view from the top

In February 2008, Charles Bradley stepped down as chairman of the Bird Island Lighthouse Preservation Society. Hopefully, others will step in to carry the torch. ""You've got to have a little love for the project," said Bradley. "You need the enthusiasm."

Bird Island Light can be seen distantly from shore but is best viewed by private boat. For more information or to help with the ongoing preservation of Bird Island Light, contact:

Bird Island Lighthouse Preservation Society

2 Spring Street

Marion, MA 02738

Phone: (508) 748-0550

 

You can read much more about this lighthouse in the book The Lighthouses of Massachusetts by Jeremy D'Entremont.

 

Keepers: William S. Moore (1819-1834); John Clark (1834-1849 and 1853-1861); James Delano (1849-1853); Marshall V. Simmons (1861-1867); W. A. Simmons (assistant, 1867-1868; principal keeper 1869-1872); A. B. Bowman (assistant, 1868-1869); Russell G. Gray (assistant 1870-1871); Charles A. Clark (assistant 1871-1872; principal keeper 1872-1891); Jabez Jenney (assistant, 1872-?); Peter Murray (1891-1895); Zimri Tobias ("Toby") Robinson (1895-1912); C. W. Jordan (1912); Elliott Hadley, Jr. (1912-1917); H. H. Davis (1917-1919); Maurice A. Babcock (1919-1926); George T. Gustavus (1926-1933).