Location Ipswich, Massachusetts Opened 1838 Year first constructed 1838 | Markings / pattern White/white/Daymark NR Focal height 9.14 m | |
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Year first lit 1939 (current skeleton tower) Construction Original, Brick
1881, cast iron
1939, steel Tower shape Conical/conical/skeleton Characteristic Original, fixed
Soon thereafter, revolving
Current, occulting white, 4 seconds Similar Lovells Island Range Li, Spectacle Island Range Li, Nantucket Cliff Range Lights, Nantucket Beacon, Broad Sound Channel I | ||
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 It was replaced by a cast iron tower, while by 1867 the front light, Ipswich Front Range Light, had been replaced by a movable wood structure that could be shifted as the channel shifted.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.
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. It displays a white light which occults once every 4 seconds.