Five Mile Point Lighthouse, Connecticut

Five Mile Point Lighthouse is situated at the entrance of the New Haven Harbor. It gets it's name because it is located about five miles from downtown New Haven.

There are a couple of interesting things about this light. 

First, it's tower design. You don't often see tall (this one is 80 feet high), brick (this one is made of brownstone) towers like this in New England. Some other examples are Beavertail in Rhode Island and Portland Head in Maine.

The reason is because many lighthouses in New England are for warning of localized shoals or entranceways to harbors and do not have to be visible for many miles. In the cases where the lights must be seen from far out at sea, they are often placed high on cliffs to give them additional height, like Block Island Southeast, for example.

The second interesting thing about this light is it's location. The brownstone brick tower was built in 1847, but well before that, in July 1779, a battle took place at the site of the future tower between British troop and Revolutionary soldiers. The British were able to come ashore and burn some houses in the area, but were eventually repelled by the patriots and were unable to complete their desired taking of the city of New Haven.
***
If you enjoyed this story, you might like my novel Truffle Hunt
Order the Truffle Hunt ebook at Amazon
Order a softcover copy of Truffle Hunt at Eckhartz Press