182024

History of Hospital Point

By Giana Metta

  • Before it was Hospital Point

    It was the site of an earthwork fort that saw action in the fall of 1775 when the British ship Nautilus fired on the town.

  • The Beginning

    The Beginning
    Hospital Point, in Beverly on Boston's North Shore, was first built as a smallpox hospital in 1801

  • Barracks

    The hospital was used as a barracks in the War of 1812

  • End of Smallpox Hospital

    The smallpox hospital then burnt down in1849

  • Becoming a Lighthouse

    Becoming a Lighthouse
    Beverly was an active port for both trade and fishing for many years. But it was the maritime commerce of neighboring Salem that led to the establishment of a lighthouse at Hospital Point. The Lighthouse Board requested funds "to complete the lighting" of Salem Harbor in 1869, and $30,000 was appropriated by Congress on July 15, 1870, for that purpose.

  • First Light

    First Light
    A temporary light was exhibited at Hospital Point beginning on May 1, 1872. By the following year, a 45-foot- square brick lighthouse and adjacent two-story keeper's house were completed
  • Period: to

    Serving Keeper at Hospital Point

    The longest serving keeper at Hospital Point was Joseph Henry Herrick, who served from 1873 to 1917. Herrick was a Beverly native who had worked as a shoemaker in the city, and he was also a veteran of the Civil War.

  • It's Official

    It's Official
    On May 1, 1927, the lighthouse officially became the Hospital Point Range Front Light. A rear range light was installed in the steeple of Beverly's First Baptist Church, a mile away.

  • A New Keeper

    Arthur Small, whose wife was killed at New Bedford's Palmer's Island Light in the hurricane of September 1938, became keeper in 1939 after he had recovered from his own injuries. During World War II, Keeper Small maintained a shore patrol in the area and had to check the lights at Derby Wharf and Fort Pickering in addition to Hospital Point.

  • Alterations

    The keeper's dwelling was altered in 1941 to provide barracks for 20 men

  • Automated

    The lighthouse was automated in 1947, and since then this tidy lighthouse station has been home to the commander of the First Coast Guard District and his or her family.