Borden Flats Light

Borden Flats Light

2008 photo
Location	Taunton River, Fall River, Massachusetts
Coordinates	41°42′16.986″N 71°10′27.825″W / 41.70471833°N 71.17439583°WCoordinates: 41°42′16.986″N 71°10′27.825″W / 41.70471833°N 71.17439583°W
Year first constructed	1875
Year first lit	1881 (current tower)
Automated	1963
Foundation	Cast iron and concrete caisson
Construction	Cast iron
Tower shape	Conical
Markings / pattern	Brown caisson, white body, black lantern
Height	48 feet (15 m)
Focal height	47 feet (14 m)
Original lens	4th order Fresnel lens
Current lens	250 millimetres (9.8 in)
Range	11 nautical miles (20 km; 13 mi)
Characteristic	Original: Fixed red Current: Flash white 2.5s
Fog signal	Until 1983: Bell Current: Horn: 1 every 10s
Admiralty number	J0576
ARLHS number	USA-072
USCG number	1-18925[1][2][3]
Borden Flats Light Station
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Area	0.1 acres (0.040 ha)
Built	1881
MPS	Lighthouses of Massachusetts TR
NRHP Reference #	87001528[1][4][5]
Added to NRHP	June 15, 1987

Borden Flats Light is a historic lighthouse on the Taunton River in Fall River, Massachusetts. It is a tower-on-caisson type known as a sparkplug lighthouse.

The light was built in 1881, and added to the National Register of Historic Places as Borden Flats Light Station on June 15, 1987, reference number 87001528.

History

By the mid-19th century, the city of Fall River had become a bustling textile-mill town, with regularly scheduled steamboat service to Providence, Rhode Island and New York City. The city is located at the mouth of the Taunton River where it meets Mount Hope Bay, which is an arm of Narragansett Bay.

Prior to the lighthouse, an unlit day beacon was constructed to mark the spot of a dangerous reef near the center of the relatively shallow Mount Hope Bay. In June 1880, $25,000 was appropriated for the construction of a new lighthouse on Borden Flats, which consisted of a 50-foot-tall (15 m) cast-iron tower that included a keeper's quarters. The light went into service on October 1, 1881, with a fourth-order Fresnel lens producing a fixed red light 47-foot (14 m) above mean high water. Rainwater was collected in gutters and stored in a cistern in the structure's basement level, providing the keeper's water supply.

The lighthouse, which sits in water open to the south, was battered in the hurricane of 1938. The storm left the structure with a pronounced tilt, which it still has. A new wider caisson was later added around the original one for additional protection.

In 1957 the lighthouse was electrified. It was automated in 1963. In 1977, its Fresnel lens was removed and replaced with a modern Vega VRB-25 lens. The fog bell remained in use until 1983 when it was replaced by an electronic foghorn. Under auspices of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000, the lighthouse was auctioned privately through the General Services Administration. Nick Korstad, Cindy Korstad and Craig Korstad, of Portland, Oregon are the new owners. They have plans of fully restoring the light station and making it available for public tours and overnight accommodations. ^[6]

Gallery

U.S. Coast Guard photo from 1900

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Fall River, Massachusetts

References

1. Light List, Volume I, Atlantic Coast, St. Croix River, Maine to Shrewsbury River, New Jersey (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2009. p. 172.
2. "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Massachusetts". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.
3. Rowlett, Russ (2009-09-15). "Lighthouses of the United States: Southeast Massachusetts". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
4. Staff (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
5. The coordinates shown are the official coordinates from the cited Light List and are shown to the precision given there.
6. "New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide: Borden Flats Light". Jeremy D'Entremont. 2009-09-15.