After World War II, Coast Guard personnel replaced civilian keepers at East Brother. Their duties, though remained much the same as those of their predecessors. They tended the station around the clock, watching over the light each night and, when necessary, operating the diaphone. There was still the work of cleaning the lens, checking the backup systems, doing painting and other routine maintenance work, and regularly ferrying groceries and supplies from shore to the island.
Much of East Brother Lighthouse has been restored to its early-day appearance and function. A giant cistern still stores rainwater for use on the island. Victorian-style trim decorates the outside of the dwelling and tower. And the mighty diaphone fog signal, installed in 1934, roars back to life to the thrill of visitors. Guests can even stay overnight, dining and sleeping where the different lightkeepers lived for nearly one hundred years.
The north side of Martha's Vineyard Island is notched by a large V-shaped bay forming a harbor for the town of Vineyard Haven (originally called Homes Hole). The harbor is guarded on the east and west sides by capes known as East and West Chop. Since the beginning of our country, both chops have witnessed the passing of thousands of vessels. Until the construction of the Cape Cod Canal in the 1940s, the primary route of vessels transiting from Portland, Maine, in the north to New York and points south was past these two chops.
Eatons Neck Lighthouse, situated on the northern extremity of Eatons Neck on a high bluff overlooking Long Island Sound, is the second oldest lighthouse on Long Island. It is located at the end of Lighthouse Road in the Village of Asharoken, Huntington Township, Suffolk County. Built in 1799 under a contract between John J. McComb, Jr., architect, and William Miller, Commissioner of Revenue of the United States Treasury Department, this sandstone structure was variously referred to in the Article of Agreement as "A LightHouse of Stone" and the "Octagon Pyramid".
In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln authorized the establishment of a new lighthouse for the west coast on the Straits of Juan de Fuca in Washington. Ten acres were reserved at the end of a peninsula known as Ediz Hook. The following year Congress appropriated $5,000 to construct the station. Today's value would be over $100,000, which was a lot of money to spend during a costly war.
Located in Nahant Bay, of northern Boston Harbor, the Egg Rock Lighthouse became operational on Sept. 15, 1856. The structure consisted of a lantern on the keeper's dwelling. A fixed white light was produced by a 5th order Fresnel lens. The station was a single family station. In 1897 the structure was destroyed by fire. The replacement structure, constructed the following year, consisted of a 34-foot-high, brick tower attached to a white wooden dwelling. The new characteristic was a fixed red light. Egg Rock was automated in 1919 and the keeper removed.
Gold! Its discovery in August 1896 along the Klondike River in Alaska set off the Klondike Gold Rush and spurred construction of coastal towns along the Inside Passage of British Columbia and Alaska. Eventually, the route north was marked with fog signals, buoys, and lighthouses, but not before tragedy and turmoil tainted the story. Death and disappointment came first, followed by struggle and uncertainty. Nowhere are those tales more vividly preserved than in the century-old Eldred Rock Lighthouse.
Boon Island Lighthouse, established in 1811 several miles off the coast of southern Maine, was one of the most isolated and desolate of New England's light stations. The first keeper was David Oliver, a carpenter who had helped build the station. Oliver soon resigned to serve as a mate on a Europe-bound ship. Thomas Hanna, a sea captain originally from Scotland and the grandfather of the Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse hero Marcus Hanna, succeeded Oliver. Hanna resigned May 1816.
It was a wild night when the lighthouse fell...Father (Eber Ward) had Igone over to Mackinaw two days before and a storm had arisen that prevented his getting back." Thus began Emily Ward's first-person account of her experiences helping her father, when he was Keeper on Bois Blanc Island in upper Lake Huron. She continued, "The Lighthouse had originally been placed too near the water and every heavy storm was full of peril for the old lighthouse.
In 1867 Emma Dominy of Beekmantown, New York, married William Tabberrah from a farm near Beekmantown. Because William was a disabled veteran of the Civil War, he was advised to apply for the position of keeper of the light at Cumberland Head on Lake Champlain. He received that appointment in 1871, moving Emma and her two babies into the new limestone block lighthouse beside the much older conical tower. In spite of his disability, William kept the light for 33 years. He purchased an 89-acre farm adjoining the lighthouse property, which enablecd him to indulge his love of horses.