BlockBefore
Photograph of Wing's Neck Light
Photograph by Bruce Tuten from Savannah, Georgia, United States, CC BY 2.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Wing's Neck Light

Built in 1889. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. 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

“The Wing's Neck Light is a historic lighthouse in the Pocasset village of Bourne, Massachusetts. It is located on Wing's Neck Road at the end of Wing's Neck, a peninsula between Pocasset Harbor and the Hog Island Channel, which provides access to the Cape Cod Canal.”

Wikipedia article Wing's Neck Light, CC BY-SA 4.0.

one of 145 National Register listings in Barnstable County · listed in 1987 · category: Structure · built in 1889.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 buildingss, 2 structuress as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. Wing's Neck Rd., Bourne, 02559
  • When was it listed? 1987-06-15
  • Category. structure
  • Also known as. Lighthouses of Massachusetts TR
  • Township. Bourne town
  • When was it built? 1889
  • National Register reference number. 87001503 - 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.

The ground it stands on

5,230 words

The chapter on Bourne Town in Bourne High School Yearbook, published 1900 names Bourne. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

For the past ten years the scholars of the Bourne High School have been expecting a new building in which to finish their course. Every March we have attended the regular town meeting in anticipation of a new High SchiK)l building voted tons; but each year we have returned in disappointment and resumed our seats in the old, dark and unhealthy building. Until now it remains for some future class to return, not with disappointment but with joy.

Passage source: Bourne High School Yearbook, published 1900.

Of the Graduating Class of the Bourne High School are most cordially invited to place their orders with us for their graduating outfit; assuring them the latest up to-date styles and such fabrics as will be adapted to the occasion.

Passage source: Bourne High School Yearbook, published 1900.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Bourne Town - 5,230 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

102 since 2001

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 102 fires within 5 miles of Wing's Neck Light between 2001 and 2020, burning about 71 acres in total. 3 started naturally. 14 were 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/undetermined47
Debris and open burning15
Arson/incendiarism14
Smoking9
Equipment and vehicle use6
Misuse of fire by a minor4
Recreation and ceremony4
Natural3

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
4 September 2004Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
3 September 2015Naturalunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control2153398
26 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
18 September 2003Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
10 September 2002Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
1 September 2003Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
9 August 2002Arson/incendiarismunder an acreMassachussetts State Fire Marshal's Officenot named
6 August 2015Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control2152970

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 3,246 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 3,246 specimens collected within 10 miles of Wing's Neck Light between 1791 and 1975: 1,780 Animalia, 909 Plantae, 390 Fungi, 125 Chromista, 36 Bacteria, 5 Unrecorded, 1 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Harvey, A. B. Seymour, A. Gross 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.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
A photograph of the species Drosera filiformis, not of this specimenDrosera filiformis var. filiformis1791not recorded
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia fibrata, not of this specimenPolysiphonia fibrata (Dillwyn) Harvey1844Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Ulva clathrata, not of this specimenUlva clathrata (Roth) C.Agardh1852G. W. Perry
A photograph of the species Chilomycterus geometricus, not of this specimenChilomycterus geometricus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)1860unknownBuzzards Bay
A photograph of the species Nereis megalops, not of this specimenNereis megalops (Verrill, 1873)1871Verrill, A. E.Falmouth. Waquoit Pond
A photograph of the species Nereis pelagica, not of this specimenNereis pelagica Linnaeus, 17581871Verrill, A. E.Falmouth. Waquoit Pond
A photograph of the species Nereis succinea, not of this specimenNereis succinea Leuckart, 18471871Verrill, A. E.Falmouth. Waquoit Pond
A photograph of the species Notomastus luridus, not of this specimenNotomastus luridus Verrill, 18731871Verrill, A. E.Falmouth. Waquoit Pond
A photograph of the species Gobiosoma bosc, not of this specimenGobiosoma bosc (Lacepède, 1800)1872V. Edwards & United States Bureau of FisheriesWareham River, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Lycopodiella gilmanii, not of this specimenLycopodiella × gilmanii A.Haines1872not recorded
Polygala nuttallii Torr. & A.Gray1872J. M. Piper
A photograph of the species Polygala verticillata, not of this specimenPolygala verticillata L.1872J. M. Piper

All 3,246 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this property

16 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Bourne, the town this property stands in, in 16 storm reports between 1997 and 2024: 4 hail, 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 lightning, 2 waterspout. The reports record 1 injury. 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2000LightningBourne1 hurtno account filed
August 2015Thunderstorm WindBourne$30,000Thirty to forty trees were downed in a square mile area in the vicinity of Shore Road and Beach Street.
July 2006LightningBourne$15,000no account filed
September 2021Flash FloodBourne$10,000The Bourne rotary was flooded with two cars stuck in the water. Basement flooding also occurred in the area.
September 2005Flash FloodBourne$7,000no account filed
July 2016Thunderstorm WindBourne$5,000Wires on Canal Road in Bourne were downed by thunderstorm winds.
July 2019LightningBourne$2,000Lightning caused a house fire on Prestwick Road in Bourne.
August 2018Thunderstorm WindBourne$1,000At 4:43 PM EST, a tree was down across Back River Road in Bourne.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindBourne$800In Bourne, a tree and wires were down on Sandwich Road.
August 2024HailBourne-In Bourne, 1 inch hail fell.
August 1997WaterspoutBourne-Buzzards Bay
August 1997WaterspoutBourne-Cape Cod Bay
August 2014HailBourne-no account filed
August 2008HailBourne-no account filed
June 1998HailBourne-no account filed
August 1997Funnel CloudBourne-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Barnstable County

Map coverage status

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

1,698 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 reproduced in full on its own page, word for word and 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.

The whole case file for this property - 1,698 words, 12 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 87001503, 12 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.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Cataumet Schoolhouse2.8 miles2019
Nye, Elnathan, House3.8 miles2002
Cleveland Ledge Light Station4.1 miles1987
Briggs, George I., House5.3 miles1981
Bourne, Jonathan, Public Library5.3 miles2013
Bourne High School5.4 miles2013

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 87001503 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Barnstable CountyAll 145 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • 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.
  • 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.