Spreading the Light - Fort Taber Park - New Bedford, MA - Massachusetts Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Spreading the Light
Lighthouse at Clark’s Point

Throughout recorded history, the lighthouses Park point it served as important navigational aids to generations of mariners. The first lighthouse, built of wood in 1797, was financed by New Bedford’s merchants to help guide to their ships safely into port. The lighthouse burned a year later but was quickly rebuilt and turned over to the federal government in 1800. After another fire in 1804, it was rebuilt of rubble masonry. In 1869, the light was relocated atop the Fort.

Butler Flats Light Station in the outer harbor replaced Clark’s point light in 1898. Noted artist, author it engineer Francis Hopkins Smith (1838 – 1915) designed Butler Flats Light. Smith is also credited with building the foundation the Statue of Liberty and the Race Rock Lighthouse off New London. Constructed between 1896 in 1898 at a cost of $34,000 Butler Flats is a caissons style structure 35 feet in diameter. The original lens was French-made. The first light keeper was Capt. Amos C. Baker, Jr., a retired New Bedford whaling master who served from 1898 to 1911. His son, Charles A. Baker served as light keeper from 1911 to 1941. Accessible only by boat, the light stands 53 feet above sea level. It includes basement storage chambers, light keepers quarters and lantern room. In 1975, the Coast Guard deactivated Butler Flats. New Bedford’s citizens rallied to say the light. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.