Billingsgate Island Light

Billingsgate Island Light stood at the entrance to Wellfleet Harbor on Cape Cod, on an island that was once a settled fishing community but is now mostly submerged at high tide. Built in 1822 and operating from 1858, the forty-one-foot brick lighthouse had an unusual square tower, used kerosene and a Fresnel lens, and helped guide fishermen and other mariners. Billingsgate Island once held more than thirty houses, a school, and a baseball team, but worsening erosion and failed sea walls left it vulnerable. In the great storm of 1915, the lighthouse and town were destroyed, and only the granite foundation remains.

Massachusetts · United States