Old Postcard Views of Harbor Light
An attractive rendering of Harbor Light was featured on the cover of this souvenir album, ca. 1912. The connection between the house and the tower was removed after the light was lit automatically with acetylene gas and a keeper was no longer needed. The house was later sold into private hands.
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A northward view on which the souvenir album image was based, but with a different harbor scene beyond. The first keeper's house was built in 1818, the second in 1863, with a second story added in 1900 for an assistant keeper.
"I have been to top of this lighthouse - 1907"
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A southward view ca. 1910 showing the several outbuildings that once stood on the property, and the curving beach to the north.
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A photograph ca. 1906 with a Daboll fog trumpet projecting from the lantern, along with a housing for the apparatus that produced air pressure. This was one of a series of experimental fog signals that upset area residents until the last one was relocated to Ledge Light in 1911.
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A fanciful rendering "by Moon Light" ca. 1907
The Fresnel lens installed in is still in use today. Fuel for the lamp changed over the years from whale oil to oil vapor to acetylene gas, and it was finally electrified in 1930.
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Harbor Light stands in the background, ca. 1907, with another landmark, the Pequot Casino, over the fisherman. Not a casino in the modern sense,** it was a social club for dues-paying members of the exclusive neighborhood long known as the Pequot Colony.
**John Ruddy, Images of America - New London: Charleston, Arcadia, 1998
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A colorful moonlight scene, ca. 1907-1915, with rock outcroppings beyond the beach on the north side. The "characteristic" of Harbor Light (official term for the illumination sequence) is three seconds of white light alternating with three of darkness.
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In its early years Harbor Light stood out prominently on land and offshore. Trees have been slowly filling in the area west of the tower, and there are still very few houses along the shore in this turn-of-the-century view.
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An undated aerial view showing the prominence of Harbor Light prior to post-World War II residential development. Today it is difficult to see the lighthouse from the landward side due to trees and houses.
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Below: An early map with Harbor Light at lower left and the Pequot Casino at the fold. Compared with the photograph above, it makes clear how the shoreline and Pequot Avenue turn northward 45 degrees, making the lighthouse invisible to the city beyond.
