The Tarpaulin Cove Lighthouse is up for transfer, and the U.S. Coast Guard hopes to permanently sign care of the lighthouse to a government agency or nonprofit that will preserve the Naushon island landmark for generations to come.
Located at the southern tip of Tarpaulin Cove on Naushon’s south shore, the 28-foot brick lighthouse is presently managed by the Cuttyhunk Historical Society, which holds a 25-year lease on the property set to expire in 2026.
The Cuttyhunk Historical Society, other preservation groups, and government agencies, have until Sept. 7 to submit a letter of interest in the lighthouse to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), which will oversee the transfer of the lighthouse.
“Under the [National Historic Lighthouse Protection Act], the property must be used for educational, park, recreational, cultural, or historic preservation purposes,” the GSA wrote in a press release.
Carolyn Powers, president of the Cuttyhunk Historical Society board, told the Gazette that the Society’s board would meet before the Sept. 7 deadline to determine whether the group would submit a letter of interest for the lighthouse.
Since taking over maintenance of the lighthouse in 2001, the small society has raised more than $100,000 in maintenance funds for the property, Ms. Powers said. In 2018, the society repaired the roof, resealed and repainted the lighthouse and fixed the eroding pathway leading down to the cove’s beach.
“We have a good track record of caring for this historic landmark over the past 23 years and are trying to come up with a plan that makes sense for the future,” Ms. Powers wrote in a statement to the Gazette. “We cannot comment further at this time.”
The lighthouse is located on a 75-foot square plot, about one-tenth of an acre in size, according to the GSA.
The earliest Tarpaulin Cove lighthouse was built privately in 1759 by Zaccheus Lumbert of Nantucket, the fourth lighthouse built on the New England coast.
The government acquired the lighthouse in 1818, and for the rest of the 19th century the lighthouse oversaw a small, but bustling harbor.
According to the historical society, Vineyard Sound at the time was believed to have been the second busiest shipping passage in the world, second only to the English Channel. But it was also a treacherous stretch of water, claiming hundreds of ships.
Several lighthouses were erected in Falmouth, the Elizabeth Islands and on the Vineyard to safeguard the shipping lanes.
In the whaling days Tarpaulin Cove was equipped with an inn, tavern, pilot house, and graveyard that furnished all a rowdy crowd of sailors could need for a day on land, local historian Paul Schneider said.
“There wasn't a huge town there, but it was a place you could get out of a heavy northeast wind, if you got stuck in nor’easter,” Mr. Schneider said.
The last lighthouse keeper at Tarpaulin Cove gave up his post in 1941 and the lighthouse was automated.
Today, nearly all of Naushon and its neighboring islands are owned by the Forbes family as a private seasonal estate. Public visitors are allowed in the waters and on the beaches of Tarpaulin Cove, although the lighthouse is closed to visitors.
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