National Register of Historic Places
Portsmouth Harbor Light
New Castle, Rockingham County, New Hampshire
The record
- Listed
- October 8, 2009
- Type
- Building
- Address
- .3 mi. E. of Rt. 1B jct. with Wentworth Rd., Ft. Constitution SE corner, New Castle
- County
- Rockingham
- State
- New Hampshire
- Contributing resources
- 2 buildings, 1 structure
- Coordinates
- 43.07107, -70.70859
- Reference number
- 09000816
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public LibraryUSGS Historical Topographic Map CollectionBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesBarry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
The Portsmouth Harbor Light is a lighthouse building at Fort Constitution's southeast corner in New Castle, Rockingham County, listed in the National Register in 2009. Its 48-foot cast iron tower was built in 1878 inside the earlier wooden tower of 1804.
Why it's listed
It was listed under criteria A and C, with a consideration for a moved property, and carries state-level significance in maritime history, transportation, architecture and engineering. Its period of significance runs from 1804 to 1959, anchored by the tower's 1878 construction.
Physical character
The tower stands on a granite foundation with a lantern gallery and spiral stairway, and its fourth order Fresnel lens replaced the original reflector lamps in 1854. The keeper's dwelling, with clapboard and brick walls under a slate roof, was moved 550 feet east in 1897 and 300 feet farther in 1906 onto a new granite block foundation.
Historical context
A first lighthouse stood nearby from 1771 under New Hampshire's colonial government before the site passed to the federal government in 1791. The keeper's dwelling, built in 1872, housed U.S. Lighthouse Service keepers and their families from 1878 until 1948, when the Coast Guard took over the building for personnel housing, and the light was automated in 1960.