Borden Flats Light

Infobox_nrhp | name =Borden Flats Light Station
nrhp_type =

---

caption =
location= Fall River, Massachusetts
lat_degrees = 41
lat_minutes = 42
lat_seconds = 18
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 71
long_minutes = 10
long_seconds = 40
long_direction = W
locmapin = Massachusetts
area =
built =1881
architect= Unknown
architecture= No Style Listed
added = June 15, 1987
governing_body = COAST GUARD
mpsub=Lighthouses of Massachusetts TR
refnum=87001528cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

Borden Flats Light Station is a historic lighthouse on the Taunton River in Fall River, Massachusetts.

The light was built in 1881 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

History

By the mid-1800s, the city of Fall River had become a bustling textile-mill town, with regularly scheduled steamboat service to Providence, Rhode Island and New York City. The city is located at the mouth of the Taunton River where it meets Mount Hope Bay, which is an arm of Narragansett Bay.

Prior to the lighthouse, an un-lit day beacon was constructed to mark the spot of a dangerous reef near the center of the relatively shallow Mount Hope Bay. In June of 1880, $25,000 was appropriated for the construction of a new lighthouse on Borden Flats, which consisted of a fifty foot tall cast-iron tower that included a keeper's quarters. The light went into service on October 1, 1881, with a fourth-order Fresnel lens producing a fixed red light 47 feet above mean high water. Rainwater was collected in gutters and stored in a cistern in the structure's basement level, providing the keeper's water supply.

The south-facing lighthouse was battered in the New England Hurricane of 1938. The storm left the structure with a pronounced tilt, which it still has. A new wider caisson was later added around the original one for additional protection.

In 1957 the lighthouse was electrified. It was automated in 1963. In 1977, its Fresnel lens was removed and replaced with a modern plastic lens. The fog bell remained in use until 1983 when it was replaced by an electronic foghorn. [ [http://www.lighthouse.cc/bordenflats/index.html Borden Flats Lighthouse web site] ]

ee also

*List of Registered Historic Places in Fall River, Massachusetts

References