Built in 1903. 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 Graves Light is a lighthouse located on The Graves, the outermost island of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, and 9 miles (14 km) offshore of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, USA.”
Wikipedia article The Graves Light, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 93 National Register listings in Plymouth County · listed in 1987 · category: Structure · built in 1903 · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Plymouth County.
National Register reference number.87002041- 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
2 since 2015
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Graves Light Station between
2015 and 2017, burning about 0 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
Debris and open burning
2
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 3,687 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Graves Light Station between 1815 and
1975: 2,467 Plantae, 442 Animalia, 361 Chromista, 352 Fungi, 54 Unrecorded, 6 Bacteria, 5 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A Loveridge, A Phelps Wyman, A W Cheever 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 National Weather Service names
Hull, the town this property stands in, in 6 storm reports between 1997 and 2006: 3 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flood.
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.
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
2,013 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
"The Graves" is a round granite tower located off Boston Harbor. At one time it had the most powerful beam in Massachusetts, measuring 380,000 candlepower. The western side of the lighthouse is equipped with a heavy copper ladder. Forty feet above the ledge is the first stage of the lighthouse. Here is located a covered cistern, which is thirty-five feet deep and can hold hundreds of gallons of water. Before the light was automated the tank was filled twice a year by the tender of the light. The second stage houses the engine room where two semi-diesel engines which run the fog horn are ready for any emergency. Located on the third level is the kitchen. The fourth deck is the location of the bunk room. The fifth staging is the library and watch room.
The sixth stage holds the mechanism for the light, but the light itself occupies the two floors above.
Statement of significance
/ARCHITECT Royal Luther Lighthouse builder Royal Luther of Malden, Massachusetts was the builder of "The Graves". The cutting of the granite to be used for this light began at Cape Ann early in 1903. The actual work at the lighthouse site commenced 1 June 1903. The first piece of granite was brought to Graves Light on 1l August 1903. The first lens for "The Graves" was manufactured in Paris. By midsummer 1905 the station was ready to begin operation. After the station was in operation the building of a granite oil house ninety feet south with a footbridge connecting it to the light was completed. In its history there have been many rescues in the light's vicinity. In 1936 "Romance" sank after a collision with the "New York" in heavy fog, there were no injuries.
The "City of Salisbury" sank in 1938. There was no loss of life, but a million dollar cargo was ruined. This has been the most spectacular shipping disaster in Boston Harbor history. The "Mary E. O'Hara" sank in the early hours of 21 January 1941 losing all but five of its crew. The Grave Ledge was named for Thomas Graves, vice-admiral of John Winthrop's fleet and a resident of Lynn who became America's first foreign trader. The builder of Graves Light, Royal Luther, died in February 1943 at 87 years of age.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 87002041, 14 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
2 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.
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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