Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse, Saybrook Connecticut

Date added: February 18, 2023 Categories: Connecticut Lighthouse

North elevation, with breakwater in foreground, camera facing south (1989)

Saybrook Breakwater Light stands on a breakwater only a mile and a half from the Lynde Point Lighthouse, a land-based masonry tower established in 1802 to mark the west side of the entrance to the Connecticut River. The challenge of marking waterbound hazards to navigation had been met in the first few decades of federal control through the deployment of buoys and lightships. One such buoy was approved by Congress on March 3, 1831, to mark Saybrook Bar at the mouth of the Connecticut River.

Such an aid to navigation was inadequate for the needs of the increased maritime traffic in Long Island Sound after the Civil War. The technology required to build an adequate lighthouse foundation from cast-iron for underwater sites where ice floes were a danger was well developed by the mid-1870s. At that time Major George H. Ellfot, Engineer-Secretary of the United States Lighthouse Boards designed a tubular cast-iron lighthouse foundation to be prefabricated in curved sections and assembled near the site. This design was a major accomplishment in the history of American lighthouse engineering. The earliest known use of this type of foundation was at Southwest Ledge Lighthouse, near New Haven, Connecticut in 1877. Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse was one of the early structures that resulted from this development.

In 1883, an inadequate appropriation was made for a lighthouse for Saybrook "Bar". An additional appropriation was requested and approved. The sub-foundation on the sand and gravel bottom was finished in 1885, and an iron tubular foundation 32 feet high and 30 feet in diameter was bolted together and sunk into place in 17 feet of water.

The foundation followed the design worked out by Major Ellfot: curved, cast-iron plates of identical dimensions were bolted together to make rings, or courses, by means of wrought iron bolts attached through flanges cast into the inner edges of the plates. The cast-iron rings were then bolted together vertically before being submerged onto the subfoundation. Concrete made with Portland cement was used to fill the foundation, leaving a cavity at the top for the basement and cistern of the superstructure.

The lighthouse superstructure has a truncated cone configuration, made of five courses of curved cast-iron plates, which, like the foundation, were flanged to facilitate a bolted assembly. It was fabricated by the G. W. and F. Smith Iron Company of Boston, Massachusetts. A lining of brick was installed, which supports the outer edge of a peripheral cast-iron winding stair and five cast-iron landings. The inner ends of the stair treads are supported by a curved metal wall. Saybrook Breakwater represents the earliest example in the nominated group of this stairway design, which was continued in later lighthouses of this configuration into the twentieth century. Closets built into the brick lining on the first or living room story were fitted with shelves and drawers in a manner unique in lighthouses. On the kitchen, bedroom, and radio room levels, the storage space is fitted above and below the stairs as closets and cupboards. Openings for the windows and the entrance door have the segmental arches and cast-iron trim typical of the first phase of cast-iron lighthouse development.

By June 15, 1886, the pier, superstructure, and lantern were completed, and the light was first exhibited on that date. Riprap was placed around the site for protection up to the level of the high water mark.

Fog-signal equipment was supplied in 1889, at which time the Breakwater Light took over the fog warning function from Lynde Point Lighthouse, only one and a half miles away. In 1890 a fourth-order Fresnel lens was fitted, replacing the original fifth-order lens. Six years later a Gamewell fog bell striking machine was approved for the lighthouse. In 1917, a 17-wick oil lamp was converted to incandescent oil vapor. Since 1958 the fog signal has been operated by remote control. At that time personnel from Saybrook Breakwater lived at Lynde Point and stood watch only during inclement weather.

Building Description

Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse, established in 1886, marks a sand bar on the west side of the entrance to the Connecticut River. Presently painted white, the cast-iron tower stands at the south end of the West Saybrook jetty, which extends southward into Long Island South from Lynde Point.

Its foundation consists of a cylinder, 30 feet in diameter and 32 feet high composed of cast-iron plates bolted together through flanges cast on the inside edges. Assembled nearby, the cylinder was transported to the site and lowered through 17 feet of water onto a sand and gravel surface. Riprap was deposited around it while concrete was used to fill the bottom and perimeter, leaving a central cavity for the cistern and basement area. A corrugated profile was cast into the inner surface of the iron plates, presumably as a stabilizing factor for the concrete fill. Brick lining for the basement incorporates brick walls around the cistern in the northeast quadrant.

The 48-foot-high light tower tapers from an interior diameter of 21 feet at the top of the first story to 10 feet 2 inches at the watchroom level. A brick lining, 12 inches thick at the bottom and 8 inches thick at the top, insulates and stabilizes the bottom three stories of the tower. A cylindrical cast-iron watchroom rests atop the fourth story, supporting a 12-sided cast-iron lantern above. Both watchroom and lantern levels have railed galleries.

The cast-iron plates of the tower each are one story in height and overlap the plate below in a semi-circular ridge. Architectural elements on the first, seconds and third stories, such as the entrance door and the pedimented windows, are each cast as the central part of a single plate. The gallery at the first story level was roofed over in 1927 with transite (asbestos building lumber). Supporting the gallery roof at the perimeter of the foundation are plain steel posts incorporating three pipe rails. A metal wall encloses the western segment of this gallery.

On the northeast facade, an elliptically arched entrance with an outer metal plate door and an inner wood door with glass panels is enclosed by a simple unembellished iron door hood. Above the entrance is a plate with the inscription "G. W. and F. Smith Iron Co., Boston, Mass." The most decorative architectural features of the lighthouse exterior are the molded cast-iron window surrounds, embellished with projecting shallow-peaked lintels, recessed spandrels, molded cornices, flanking consoles, and molded sills. The segmentally arched window openings contain double-hung wood sash with two-over-two lights on the first, second and third floors. These window openings are arranged asymmetrically to accommodate interior lighting requirements. On the fourth story regularly spaced bullseye or porthole windows are topped by a continuation of the molded lower edge of the top course of cast-iron plates. Flanking the round windows, simple cast-iron brackets with open triangular centers cover vertical seams between wall plates. The brackets support the watchroom gallery above, and anchor stanchions which carry the railing around the watchroom gallery.

Both the watchroom and lantern galleries are edged with double pipe rails supported on ornate cast-iron stanchions. Each stanchion is anchored to the deck by a threaded bar which has been inserted through a semi-circular projection at the edge of the deck and secured with an ornate pendant. Beneath the watchroom gallery, each of the threaded bars also has been inserted through a sleeve, cast as part of a bracket that supports the gallery deck.

The lantern is decagonal in plan, the upper half of its walls containing rectangular panes of glass. Below the windows, round ventilators with adjustable covers are set into vertical beaded board sheathing and connected to outlets on the exterior. The drainage system for interior condensation is well preserved; molded channels and drain holes can be seen in the metal framing at the bottom of each pane. The peaked, iron-plate lantern roof supports a spherical iron ventilator on beak molding and a lightning rod.

On the interior, only structural elements remain from the period prior to automation in 1968. The 12" brick lining on the first story was utilized for round-arched niches for storage purposes. Additional storage was provided on upper floors in closets and cupboards fitted into the space between the brick lining and the interior metal staircase wall. The cast-iron stairs wind around the periphery of the tower from the first to the fourth story, anchored to the brick lining and the interior wall. Curving cast-iron ship's ladders provide access to the basement, watchroom and lantern. A central cast-iron column rises from a brick platform in the basement to the ceiling of the fourth story, supporting the floors at each level. Floors are comprised of wedge-shaped cast-iron sections, bolted together on the underside and covered with cement on the first story and narrow wood floorboards on the second and third stories. Plaster covers the brick walls on all stories but the fourth, where vertical beaded board sheathing covers the walls. Eight glazed portholes in the watchroom ceiling introduce light from the lantern above.

The present lighting apparatus is electrified and automated. It replaced an earlier incandescent oil-vapor lamp which, in 1917, replaced the original seventeen light oil wick lamp.

Adjoining the east side of the lighthouse foundation, a concrete pad has been poured atop the breakwater, supporting a fuel tank.

The gallery roof around the perimeter of the foundation has been removed, along with the posts that supported it. In place of the posts is found a series of vertical pipes used to support the chain that serves as a handrail.

The windows are now blocked up with black-painted plywood and sheet metal. The sash has been removed from all the openings. Some openings retain a portion of their molded interior surrounds.