You’ve certainly heard of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, who spied the single lantern on Boston’s Old North Church and spread the word that the British were coming by land. When that famous "light event" happened in April 1775, there had been another light burning in Boston Harbor every night for fifty-nine years.

The first lighthouse in North America was built on Little Brewster Island at the entrance to Boston’s busy harbor.

There had been calls for some sort of light to guide ships into Boston Harbor—a center for maritime commerce in the American colonies—for a number of years. There were a few primitive aids to navigation in places such as Point Allerton as early as 1673, but no lighthouses.

On July 13, 1715, the Boston Light Bill was passed by the colonial legislature, stating, "The want of a lighthouse erected at the entrance to the harbor hath been a great discouragement to navigation by the loss of lives and estates of several of his Majesty’s subjects; for prevention thereof -- Be it enacted . . . that there be a lighthouse erected at the charge of the Province, on the southernmost part of Great Brewster, called Beacon Island, to be kept lighted from sun setting to sun rising."

A rubblestone tower was built on Little Brewster Island, financed by a tax of a penny per ton of goods on all vessels passing into or out of the harbor. George Worthylake, the first keeper, lit the light for the first time on September 14, 1716.

In 1775, during the American Revolution, Boston Harbor was under the control of the British. American troops twice attacked and burned the lighthouse, but the British repaired it. When the British forces left the area on June 13, 1776, one of their final acts was to set off a timed charge on Little Brewster, completely destroying the lighthouse.

It was not until 1783 that the present Boston Harbor Lighthouse was built. It was said to be of the same dimensions as the original, about 75 feet in height.