Built in 1849. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1980. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“Palmer Island Light Station is a historic lighthouse in New Bedford Harbor in New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA. The lighthouse was built in 1849 out of stone rubble.”
Wikipedia article Palmer Island Light, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 272 National Register listings in Bristol County · listed in 1980 · category: Building · built in 1849 · one of 8 National Historic Landmarks in Bristol County.
Also known as. Lighthouses of Massachusetts TR (AD); Lighthouses of Massachusetts TR
Township. New Bedford city
When was it built? 1849
National Register reference number.80000433- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
29 since 2015
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Palmer Island Light Station between
2015 and 2020, burning about 18 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
13
Debris and open burning
8
Recreation and ceremony
3
Smoking
2
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
Fireworks
1
Power generation/transmission/distribution
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 2,246 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Palmer Island Light Station between 1824 and
1975: 934 Animalia, 631 Plantae, 565 Fungi, 87 Chromista, 23 Bacteria, 6 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Gridley, A. B. Seymour, A. Clark and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
2 workings within 5 miles of Palmer Island Light Station: 1 unknown, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
New Bedford, the town this property stands in, in 22 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 11 flood, 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 flash flood, 2 heavy rain.
The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
The Swansea Mall parking lot flooded. In New Bedford: Acushnet Avenue and one lane of Route 18 North were closed due to flooding at their intersections with Hillman Street, Acushnet Avenue was also flooded at Wamsutta Street, Buttonwood Brook went out of its banks flooding several yards on Hawthorne Street, Sawyer and Purchase Streets were flooded. Several basements flooded on Riverside Avenue in Somerset. In Fall River: McGee and Cedar Streets, New Boston Road, and Eastern Avenue were flooded with vehicles stuck in flood waters. In addition, numerous basements were flooded. Union Street and Burt Street near Tremont Street were flooded in Taunton.
Flooding continued after three to five inches of rain fell across the region earlier in the day. In New Bedford, Parker Street near New Bedford High School was closed due to continued flooding. Dartmouth Street was washed out between Rockland and Spooner Streets. The road was closed for repairs as the asphalt washed away. In Acushnet, Main Street near Clems Way was flooded and impassable.
Flooding was reported in New Bedford on parts of Route 18, Purchase Street, and at the intersection of Rockdale, Coggeshall and Sawyer Streets. Route 18 was closed in both directions for a time because of water up to 30 inches deep flooding the roadway. The I-195 eastbound exit ramp to Route 18 South was closed for a brief time due to water covering the roadway. In Fairhaven, flooding affected Route 6 at Green Street as well as on Bridge and Spring Streets, where as much as 18 inches of water covered the road. Two cars were stranded on Adams Street after attempting to drive through the flooded roadway.
Minor street flooding occurred along Route 18 by the Royal restaurant and Tarkiln Hill Road and Kings Highway. A car was stuck in flood waters at Weld Street and Route 18.
In New Bedford, Dartmouth Street at Rockdale Avenue was flooded to the point where DPW assistance was required. Padanaram Ave. was also flooded. Report relayed by amateur radio.
Portions of Acushnet Avenue (Route 18) and Coggeshall Street were closed near Interstate 195 due to flooding. Several cars were stuck in flood waters on Route 6 near Route 140.
Several roads were closed due to flooding in New Bedford. Some of these include: Coggeshall Street, portions of Route 18, and Sawyer Street. In Somerset, Buffington Brook went out of its banks, flooding County Street and a nearby park.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
10,440 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
Mistorical Description: Built between 9 June and 22 September, 1849 by Charles M. Pierce, Masonry, under contract to the Superintendent of Lights, at a cost of $1951. Though originally specified to be octagonal, the tower appears to have always been circular in plan, as it is today. Pertinent dimensions are as follows: (U.S. Coast Guard RG-26 (a)). Foundation: 3 ft. high rubble masonry Tower: Rubble masonry 24 ft. high with 18 ft. 4 inch diameter and 3ft. thick walls at base, and 10 ft. diameter and 18 inch thick walls at top (Exhs. A-D). Floor: Brick Stairs: Three flights of wooden stairs spiraling the inner face of the wall, and an upper flight of iron steps. Entry: Two 6 ft. 10 in. x 3 ft. doors Windows: Three 19 in. x 21 1/2 in. windows of twelve 8 in. x 6 in. lights (Exhs. A-D) .
Lantern: Deck - 10 ft. diameter, of copper sheathed wood with iron railing, and tower access via scuffle. Lantern - Specified as octagonal, iron with 6 plate glass lights of 24 in. x 15 in. on each face; 4 ft. x 2 ft. copper sheathed door in ventilator in dome top 15 in. high x 12 in. diameter with 2 ft. x 1 ft. copper sheathed vane above. The light may have been fueled by whale oil produced at this time, and was probably of the fixed white form noted in 1889. Note: The 9 sided lantern now present (1979) may be original. Lightning Rod: On tower exterior, from ledge to l ft. above vane on lantern. A keeper's dwelling was built, and other buildings constructed on the island in later years. Their history and present condition are assessed in the attached Archaeological Reconnaissance Report.
/ARCHITECT Charles M. Pierce STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE The significance of Palmer Island Light lies in two factors, its historic associa- tion and its architecture. At the time of the light's construction, New Bedford was the major home port of the world's whaling fleet, supplying nearly 50% of the American oil supply. This prosperity was probably a major impetus for the lighthouse construction. The whaling industry collapsed during the second half of the century, but con- siderable commercial and fishing traffic continued to operate out of the harbor throughout the late19th and 20th century.
The light was kept burning for nearly 100 years, through several major storms, including a gale which damaged the plank walk from the keeper's house to the tower on September 8, 1869, and the 1938 hurricane which destroyed the keeper's house. The keeper, Captain Arthur A. Small, was injured and his wife was drowned while attempting to reach the light. An 1851 representation of the lighthouse is a prominent feature of the seal of the City of New Bedford (Fig. 3 of attached Archaeological Report). The remaining features of the lighthouse are primarily those which date from its and modifications of the late 19th and early 20th century. The tower, itself, has only been modified by the bricking of one window and the parapet door and cutting of the early 20th century bell tower door.
Remains of the latter feature also include the concrete platform which supported it. The iron lantern frame and parapet railing appear to date from at least 1863, and possibly from 1849. The dike, though damaged, is substantially as built in the 19th century, with most of the railings remaining in broken condition nearby.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 80000433, 70 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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