Ipswich Range Lights

The 1881 rear tower.

Ipswich Range Lights
Rear Light
(Ipswich Light)
1838 rear tower
Location	Ipswich, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°41′6.9″N 70°45′58.2″W / 42.685250°N 70.766167°W / 42.685250; -70.766167Coordinates: 42°41′6.9″N 70°45′58.2″W / 42.685250°N 70.766167°W / 42.685250; -70.766167
Year first constructed	1838
Year first lit	1939 (current skeleton tower)
Construction	Original, Brick 1881, cast iron 1939, steel
Tower shape	Conical/conical/skeleton
Markings / pattern	White/white/Daymark NR
Focal height	30 feet (9.1 m)
Characteristic	Original, fixed Soon thereafter, revolving Current, occulting white, 4 seconds
Fog signal	none
USCG number	1-9315 ^[1] ^[2]

Ipswich Range Lights
Front Light
Location	Ipswich, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°41′7.4″N 70°45′50.74″W / 42.685389°N 70.7640944°W / 42.685389; -70.7640944
Year first constructed	1838
Deactivated	1932
Construction	Original, Brick Later, wood
Tower shape	Original, conical Later, shanty
Markings / pattern	White
Height	29 feet (8.8 m) ^[2]

The Ipswich Range Lights are a pair of range lights on Crane Beach in Ipswich, Massachusetts. They have a long and varied story. They were first built as two brick towers, 542 feet (165 m) apart on a more or less east-west line in 1838. The movement of the sands led to shifting of the towers and by 1881 the rear tower, Ipswich Rear Range Light, was badly cracked. It was replaced by a cast iron tower, while by 1867 the front light, Ipswich Front Range Light, had been replaced by a movable wood structure that could be shifted as the channel shifted. The front light was discontinued in 1932 and the rear light was replaced in 1938 with a skeleton tower. It, or its replacement, is still in service today. The 1881 cast iron rear tower was loaded on a barge and shipped to Edgartown, Massachusetts where it replaced the Edgartown Harbor Light that had been destroyed in the Hurricane of 1938.^[2]

The modern light tower, located on the site of the Ipswich Range Rear Light as described above, is shown on Coast Guard lists and NOAA charts as Ipswich Light.^[1] It displays a white light which occults once every 4 seconds.

References

1 2 Light List, Volume I, Atlantic Coast, St. Croix River, Maine to Shrewsbury River, New Jersey (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2009. p. 76.
1 2 3 "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Massachusetts". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. 2009-08-08.

Lighthouses of Massachusetts

Annisquam Harbor Bakers Island Billingsgate Island Bird Island Bishop and Clerks Borden Flats Boston Brant Point Broad Sound Channel Butler Flats Buzzards Bay Entrance Cape Ann Cape Poge Chatham Clark's Point Cleveland East Ledge Cuttyhunk Deer Island Derby Wharf Dumpling Rocks Duxbury Pier East Chop Eastern Point Edgartown Harbor Egg Rock Fairhaven Bridge Falmouth Inner Fort Pickering (Winter Island) Gay Head The Graves Great Point Highland Hospital Point Range Front Hospital Point Range Rear Hyannis Rear Range Ipswich Range Long Island Head Long Point Lovells Island Range Marblehead Mayo Beach Minot's Ledge Monomoy Point Nantucket Beacon Nantucket Cliff Range Nantucket Harbor Range Nauset Ned Point Newburyport Harbor Front Range Newburyport Harbor Newburyport Harbor Rear Range Nixes Mate Nobska Old Scituate Palmer Island Plymouth Point Gammon Race Point Sandy Neck Sankaty Head Spectacle Island Range Stage Harbor Straitsmouth Island Tarpaulin Cove Ten Pound Island Thacher Island North Three Sisters of Nauset West Chop West Dennis Wing's Neck Wood End

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