Storied Lighthouses of the Eastern Seaboard

And now, the good stuff! Everyone loves a good story; tales of the supernatural, of lost love, about lives lost, hopes and dreams, the creepy, the unexplainable and the downright uncanny. Lighthouses along the east coast have all of this and a lot more. Read more, if you dare.

Author's choice for scariest lighthouse story of the month:

In 1939 The US Coast Guard began taking shifts at the New London Ledge Lighthouse. Very soon, spooky things started happening there. Legend has it that a lighthouse keeper by the name of Ernie jumped from the roof of the lighthouse to the ocean below. He was never seen again and his body was never found. Most people don’t believe that he killed himself, but the official story is that he cut his own throat with a fishing knife. Ernie allegedly refused to leave the lighthouse. His spirit frightened and annoyed the crew from the Coast Guard by making loud knocking sounds at night, pulling the bedding off of them while they were sleeping and turning the television set on and off. Some keepers didn’t even wait until daylight to get away from the lighthouse. They called the mainland and asked to be picked up from the place immediately. After the lighthouse was automated in 1987, several reports filtered in from boat crews that a figure at the lighthouse had signaled them or tried to lure them to the dock. However, when these reports were investigated, not a living soul was found in the lighthouse.

Honorable Mention:

The most tragic tale surrounding the Boon Island Lighthouse, which was the scene of numerous shipwrecks and other tragedies, revolves around a woman named Kathleen Bright. In the mid 1800s, Kathleen became the blushing bride of the lighthouse keeper at Boon Island. She moved to the lighthouse with her new husband shortly after their wedding for what she surely thought would be happily ever after. Soon afterwards, the story takes many twists and turns. One version of the legendary tale states that the lighthouse keeper became very ill shortly after the joyous nuptials. months. Kathleen looked after him tirelessly, even when a terrifying storm struck, but he passed away while the storm raged on. In her state of shock, Kathleen climbed the 168 steps in the lighthouse almost nonstop for five days to tend to the light. During this time, she didn’t eat and hardly slept. On the sixth day, the light was dead. Locals hurried to the island to investigate and found Kathleen wandering about aimlessly. She was starving, exhausted and out of her mind with grief. Another version states that the keeper drowned after he fell from the rocks while trying to tie up the island’s boat. Kathleen pulled him from the water and dragged him all the way back to the lighthouse, where she left his lifeless body at the bottom of the staircase. She proceeded to tend to the light for five days without eating or sleeping and when the locals found her on the sixth day, she was sitting on the bottom step holding her husband’s dead body. She was taken away to recover, but she died shortly thereafter. The spirit of Kathleen Bright has allegedly been seen by scores of local fishermen and lighthouse visitors, who have reported a white apparition of a sad young woman. Many people have also reported hearing a terrible wail coming from the lighthouse at night and during stormy weather. A Coast Guard lighthouse keeper stated that his dog chased a mysterious invisible entity all around the small island. Another two lighthouse keepers were shaken up when they saw the light come on inside the lighthouse when they were both outside with full knowledge they were the only people on the island no one else was there.

Hauntings and Lighthouse Lore

Seguin Island Lighthouse
Bath, Maine

This desolate lighthouse, one of Maine's tallest and its second oldest, is the site of a gruesome story. A keeper who had recently married moved to the island 3 miles off the coast to tend the light with his wife. To help with his wife's boredom in the winter, the keeper bought her a piano. It only came with the sheet music for one song. Unable to get new sheet music since the island was locked in ice, the wife played the same song over and over again eventually driving the keeper insane. He took an axe to the piano and then to his wife. Afterwards, he took his own life. The ghost of the keeper has been spotted in the house and sometimes, on a quiet night, you can hear the tinkling of a piano. The island is only accessible via boat or helicopter.

St. Augustine Lighthouse
St. Augustine, Florida

The scent of cigar smoke is sometimes detectable in this oil-house building. Records show no fatal oil-house explosions, but any ghost who smokes around flammable liquids must not be the brightest bulb in the U.S. Lighthouse Service. Tour guides claim to hear someone climbing the tower steps, but the footfalls fade away and no one appears at the top of the tower. This lighthouse's collection of spirits also apparently includes a prankish girl in the keeper's dwelling, a tall man in the basement, and a merchandise-disturbing poltergeist in the gift shop. The St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum doesn't exactly encourage these spooky speculations, but its website does at least acknowledge their existence. It also provides a factual history of the seven people known to have died on the lighthouse grounds.

Block Island Southeast Lighthouse
Block Island, Rhode Island

This lighthouse is not haunted iteself, but the entire 7,000-acre island is said to be haunted as well. Built in 1874 in the ornate Victorian style of the time, the Southeast Light helped ships clear the dangerous shoals and ledges of the “stumbling block” of the New England coast. Legend has it that in the 1900s a keeper murdered his wife by pushing her down the steps and her spirit never left her home. It is said she harasses men only...by shaking them, lifting their beds or even locking them in a closet or out of their rooms. Many people have reported sightings of ghosts elsewhere on the island. Phantom pirate ships have also been reported as well as the spirits of the dead who could not be buried until the ground thawed at the end of winter. Block Island can only be reached via ferry.

Owls Head Light
Owls Head, Maine

Owls Head Light State Park, open year-round, provides lovely views of Penobscot Bay. The pretty little lighthouse and the keeper's residence are part of the park but not accessible to humans. That however doesn't prevent a ghost from trespassing. The 3-year-old daughter of a previous keeper once awakened her parents and announced, "Fog's rolling in! Time to put the foghorn on!" They discovered that she had an "imaginary friend" who resembled an old sea captain. Current residents recognize his footprints in the snow and welcome his services...newly polished brass and frugally lowered thermostats.

Point Lookout Light
Scotland, Maryland

Paranormal aficionados consider this the most haunted lighthouse in America. Male and female apparitions materialize and then vanish. Doors open and close without apparent reason. People hear voices, footsteps, even snoring, but no one is there. So why does it rank only ninth? Because the beam at this modest, house-style structure went dark more than 45 years ago. A lighthouse without its light appears so forlorn. Then again, a hospital and a prison camp for Confederate soldiers existed here during the Civil War, so perhaps an unlit lighthouse represents a fitting memorial to such a mournful heritage. Today, visitors enjoy the much more pleasant surroundings of a state park. For more info go to: Point Lookout State Park