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Lovell's Island, three-quarters
of a mile long and one-third of a mile wide, is about seven miles
from Boston and about one-and-a-half miles from Boston Light.
The island's proximity to the main shipping channel into Boston
has dictated its uses through the last three centuries. It was
briefly employed as a quarantine station in the 1600s, and in
the early twentieth century the island became home to Fort Standish.
In the 1700s, a large tree on the island served as a day beacon
for mariners entering Boston Harbor.
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Courtesy of Harriet Jennings
- The children of George Kezer, who
was in charge of the buoy depot at Lovell's Island for several
years prior to 1921. Left to right: Walter Burgess Kezer, Albert
Lewis Kezer, Estelle H. Kezer, Eldon Lester Kezer, and Thatcher
Warren Kezer (born when his father was an assistant keeper at
Thacher Island).
- Courtesy of Barbara Kezer.
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A buoy depot was relocated to the island from Cohasset, on
Boston's South Shore, in 1875.
In the early 1900s, the opening of the Broad Sound Channel,
which connected with the old President Roads channel, necessitated
a new system of navigational aids to direct traffic to the inner
harbor. A sum of $10,000 was appropriated for the Lovell's Island
Range Light Station on June 28, 1902.
The station was built in 1902-03. Two light towers were erected
on the northern part of the island, known as Ram's Head. The
conical, shingled wooden towers were 40 feet (the rear light)
and 31 feet (the front light) tall, and 400 feet separated the
two. A seven-foot high wooden walkway connected the lighthouses,
the six-room keeper's house, a woodshed, and a small brick oil
house. The station went into service on April 10, 1903.
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Both towers held fourth-order Fresnel lenses. The rear light
exhibited a red flash every five seconds, and the front light's
characteristic was fixed red. Mariners heading toward Boston
from Broad Sound Channel, or from Hypocrite Channel farther to
the east, lined up the rear light directly above the front light,
thus assured they were in the center of the main shipping channel.
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The first keeper of the two wooden lighthouses was Alfred
G. Eisener of Bremen, Maine. Eisener had been an assistant keeper
at Thacher Island and keeper at Cuttyhunk and Plymouth. In his
spare time, he wrote poetry as well as accounts of his experiences.
Here's one of his poems:
Mayhap there'll come a future day
When we shall want no more
And old A.G. will be content
With what he has in store.
The office then will have to do
Without the usual rhyme
That the old man would peddle out
At almost any time.
A Boston newspaper reported in 1911 that "the house faces
the water of the main ship channel, and Mrs. Eisener keeps it
as presentable as the lenses of the revolving light."
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Alfred G. Eisener and his wife, c.
1911
- From the collection of Edward Rowe
Snow
- Courtesy of Dorothy Bicknell
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- Courtesy of Mrs. Harriet Jennings
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Succeeding Eisener as keeper in 1919 was Charles Jennings,
a native of Provincetown, Massachusetts, who had previously served
at Thacher Island, Monomoy Point, and Boston Light.
We know a great deal about the Jennings family's years at
Lovell's Island, thanks to a delightful 1989 volume published
by his son, Harold, called A Lighthouse Family.
Harold recalled that the family had a large garden near the
keeper's house, along with chickens, ducks, and turkeys. The
turkeys were a variety called "bourbon reds," bought
through the poultry section of the Sears and Roebuck catalog.
Harold had fond memories of Christmas on Lovell's Island.
The family would cut down a pine tree on the island and decorate
it on Christmas Eve. Keeper Jennings gave his son handmade toys,
and years later Harold still had a hand-fashioned lighthouse
and a battleship. "He made me a barge one year," Harold
recalled, "which had thread spools for drums to coil ropes
and the derricks went up and down -- a joy."
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While digging in his garden, Keeper Jennings would occasionally
find an old, tarnished coin. The oldest of these European coins
dated to 1600. Historian Edward Rowe Snow speculated that the
keeper had accidentally inadvertently unearthed some of the treasure
from the Magnifique, a 74-gun French man-of-war wrecked
on the island in 1782.
During a severe storm in March 1931, the lighthouse station
was under six feet of water. Keeper Jennings had to row a dory
to the towers to keep them lighted.
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- Harold Jennings (1921 - 1996)
- Courtesy of Mrs. Harriet Jennings
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- Keeper Charles Jennings and historian
Edward Rowe Snow, January 1, 1937
- From the collection of Edward Rowe
Snow
- Courtesy of Dorothy Bicknell
Harold Jennings learned to be a "wickie" from his
father, who taught him all the secrets of keeping the kerosene
lamps burning cleanly through the night. This training paid off
when Harold was 18. Charles Jennings fell ill in April 1939.
His wife performed the keeper's duties for a while, but Harold
quit high school and became the last keeper of the Lovell's Island
Range Lights.
For years, the Lovell's Island Range Lights shared the island
with the Army's Fort Standish. In the late 1930s, the government
decided to expand the fort, and the light station was discontinued
to make room. The towers were torn down in 1939; all that remains
today is the station's oil shed.
The island is accessible by water taxi from George's Island
in the summer. The lighthouses may be gone, but the island is
a pleasant place to spend a summer day.
You can read much more about this lighthouse in the book The Lighthouses
of Massachusetts by Jeremy D'Entremont.
- Courtesy of Harriet Jennings
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