{"nrhp_refnum":"87001485","name":"Newburyport Harbor Light","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Northern Blvd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Newburyport","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.814602550000075,"lon":-70.81464257999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1987-06-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Transportation","Architecture","Maritime History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 50-foot white shingled cylindrical lighthouse tower with a black cast-iron lens room, at the north end of Northern Boulevard on Plum Island, Newburyport, Massachusetts. The present tower dates from 1898 and is believed to incorporate parts of an 1788 tower.","why_significant":"The light marks the site of the eleventh lighthouse built in the U.S., continuously maintained at the mouth of the Merrimack River despite shifting sands and channels. The 1898 tower is believed to include elements of one of the original 1788 twin lights, giving it a claim to oldest extant light in the state. The form states it meets criteria A and C at the state level.","narrative":"Newburyport Harbor Light is a 50-foot cylindrical tower of white shingles topped by a black cast-iron lens room, set near the north end of Plum Island at the mouth of the Merrimack River. Two small wooden lights were first built here in 1788, the eleventh lighthouse in the United States, and were ceded to the federal government in 1790. Shifting sands and channels forced the lights to be moved several times, and jetties built around 1890 finally stabilized the channel. The present tower was built in 1898 and is believed to incorporate parts of one original 1788 tower, which may make it the oldest surviving light in Massachusetts. Inside, a wooden staircase of thirty steps climbs the wall to the lamp and lens rooms. A plastic automatic lens replaced the Fresnel lens in 1981. The keeper's house and other buildings left Coast Guard ownership in 1951, so only the tower was listed, for its role in navigation aids and its integrity.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Active and unmanned; fully automatic plastic lens installed in 1981. Only the tower is nominated because the keeper's house was disposed of in 1951 and its relationship to the tower has been obscured by later infill.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:01.338841-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/30/7902/63790230/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/87001485.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87001485/a3acc0120b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/87001485/a3acc0120b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Adavyd","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plum_Island_Lighthouse_DSC_0239_AD.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Adavyd</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plum_Island_Lighthouse_DSC_0239_AD.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63790230","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newburyport_Harbor_Light","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7017273"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/newburyport-harbor-light-87001485/"}