LITTLE BREWSTER ISLAND — The nation’s first and oldest lighthouse station and its unique keeper are celebrating a milestone.
Boston Light turns 300 on Sept. 14. The U.S. Coast Guard’s last resident lightkeeper, Sally Snowman, is helping with celebrations.
Events are planned for downtown Boston’s waterfront and other parts of the state. The lighthouse’s beam, visible for 27 miles, will be powered down and then ceremonially relighted at sunset.
“It was a major aid to navigation in 1716, and that’s exactly what it’s doing today.”
Snowman, a 65-year-old former college instructor, has been lightkeeper for 13 years and is the light’s first female keeper.
The Coast Guard has phased out resident keepers at all light stations save for Boston Light because Congress in 1989 mandated the Guard staff and keep the light public in perpetuity.
Snowman and her husband, James Thomson, live on Little Brewster Island from April to October with a rotating cast of volunteers, some of whom also spend nights on the island, about 9 miles from downtown Boston.
Snowman and Thomson married on the island in 1994 and have written three books about the lighthouse.
Snowman said she often senses spirits and other ghostlike presences. It’s unsurprising, she said, since Boston Light’s first two keepers drowned and many more perished in nearby shipwrecks over the years.
She said she also believes she was a keeper in a past life. She said the first time she went up the lighthouse tower she felt as though she “had done it a thousand times before.”
Friday through Sunday, guided tours swell the 3-acre island’s population. More than 200 people visit or work there on a given summer weekend.
But even with the routine, Snowman admitted, it’s easy to slip into island time.
“Everything is just a bit slower,” she said. “What we have is the wind and the sea and seagulls.”