By the 1870s, Stamford was crowded with a wide variety of ship traffic carrying all sorts of goods for the local economy. Lighthouse Board officials had visited the area in 1871 and recommended a day beacon and lighted beacon at opposite sides of the channel leading to the harbor, but it wasn’t until 1881 that Congress appropriated $30,000 for construction of a lighthouse. The site chosen was Chatham Rocks, about two-thirds of a mile offshore.

Stamford Harbor Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Similar to a number of other lighthouses in the region, the new structure was a cast-iron tower set on top of a cylindrical cast-iron caisson. The sections were made at a Boston foundry, brought to the site, and bolted together there. The new Stamford Harbor Lighthouse featured a foghorn and a fourth-order Fresnel lens showing a fixed red light.

Even by the reduced standards of lighthouse towers, the Stamford Harbor structure was considered especially cramped and uncomfortable and was not a favorite of the keepers assigned there. The first keeper, Neil Martin, asked for a transfer after only ten months. The second keeper, Naylor Jones, made a concentrated effort to create a homelike atmosphere at the lighthouse for his family. He moved all of their furniture and other belongings out to the site, built a dock and a chicken coop, and settled down to a cozy routine. Unfortunately, a strong northeaster came along soon after and swept the chicken coop, the dock, and the boat out to sea. The family returned to live on shore, and for the rest of his service Jones commuted to work from shore by rowboat every day.

In an interview conducted for a newspaper in 1908, Keeper John J. Cook eloquently explained how for him spending Christmas at the lighthouse was a religious experience.

I dunno; it is pretty lonesome out here sometimes, especially in winter, but we manage to enjoy our holidays. We can't go to church on Christmas, and we miss the nice music and the fine sermons, but there is a compensation for that. What more soul-stirring music could there be than that of wind and wave as they whistle and roar or moan and swish past our little home? And that light up aloft is a sermon in itself.

In 1949 the Coast Guard began public hearings over whether to close down the Stamford Harbor Ledge Lighthouse. Although the local maritime community protested loudly and strongly, in 1953 the station was put out of service and the property offered for sale. The mayor of Stamford persuaded the government to transfer the lighthouse to the city in exchange for a promise to use it as a historic site for at least twenty years. However, the city failed to maintain the site and returned it to the government eight years later.

In 1967, investors bought it for $10,000, and after going through several owners it was resold in 1984 for $230,000. (The title to the lighthouse reportedly came with rights to ten acres of surrounding land – unfortunately, it was all underwater!)

The new owner was Eryk Spektor, Chairman of the Board of First Women's Bank, who spent $300,000 renovating the lighthouse as a residence, putting in a new kitchen, modernizing the heating and electricity, painting and paneling the exterior and interior, and constructing a small breakwater and dock for his personal yacht. Unfortunately, Spektor’s wife had an extreme dislike of boats, nor did she look forward to the 15-minute journey to and from the lighthouse. As a result, Mr. Spektor has yet to spend a night at his expensive second residence.

The lighthouse was placed on the market for $1.1 million in 1996. Mr. Spektor passed away in 1998, and the lighthouse was subsequently taken off the market. It is still believed to be owned by the Spektor family.

Today, the lighthouse is a private aid to navigation. It is not open to the public, and the best views are had from the water.

References

1. The Lighthouses of Connecticut, Jeremy D’Entremont, 2005.
2. Northeast Lights: Lighthouses and Lightships, Rhode Island to Cape May, New Jersey, Robert Bachand, 1989.
3. The Keeper’s Log, Spring 1998.