The Lighthouse stood a mile off Colchester Point in Lake Champlain, marking the location of Colchester Reef, Colchester Shoals, and Hogback Reef. It was designed in 1869 by Albert Dow of Burlington, Vermont, whose plan was submitted in a contest organized by the United States Lighthouse Service. A series of eleven keepers and their families lived and worked there until 1933, when the beacon light was automated and resident keepers were no longer needed.