Nauset Light, officially Nauset Beach Light, is a lighthouse in Eastham, Massachusetts. It is a cast iron plate shell lined with brick and stands 48 feet high. The light was automated and the keeper's house was sold in 1955. Due to coastal erosion, by the early 1990s Nauset Light was less than 50 feet from the edge of the 70-foot cliff on which it stood. In 1993, the Coast Guard proposed decommissioning the light. There was a great public outcry. The non-profit Nauset Light Preservation Society was formed and funded and, in 1995, leased the lighthouse from the Coast Guard. It arranged the light's relocation in November 1996 to a location 336 feet west of the original one. The move was accomplished successfully by International Chimney Corporation.
In 1998, Mary Daubenspeck, who had owned the keeper's house since 1955, agreed to donate it to the National Park Service with the right to live in it for 25 years. It was agreed that the house would be moved from its original location, then only 23 feet from the edge of the cliff, to a new location near the relocated tower. This was accomplished in October, 1998. At about the same time, the Coast Guard gave the tower to the National Park Service and the Nauset Light Preservation Society agreed to maintain it as a private aid to navigation.
The lighthouse is the logo for Cape Cod Potato Chips.
Log In: