Plymouth Light or Gurnet Light was built in 1768 and is home to the oldest freestanding wooden lighthouse in the United States. The first Plymouth Lighthouse was a wooden house, which also served as a home for the keeper, that had a lantern put up at each end of the house. This makes Plymouth Light America’s first set of twin lights. After the original lighthouse station was destroyed a pair of wooden towers was constructed in 1803.
During the American Revolution, Hannah Thomas, who owned the land (along with her husband John) that Plymouth Light was built on, took over as keeper – she was the first female lighthouse keeper in the country. By the 1840s, the first set of wooden towers were falling apart and new pair was built in 1843. Eventually, the northeast tower was deactivated and demolished, which ended 156 years of twin lights on the site. Today, only one of the 1843 towers is still in operation.
