A major Boston institution is turning 300 this week: Boston Light, which guards the entrance to Boston Harbor and is the oldest continually operating lighthouse station in the United States. Recently, Adam Reilly got a tour of Boston Light from its keeper, who takes her job extremely seriously.
To say Sally Snowman enjoys her job as the keeper of Boston Light would be an understatement. Start with her outfit. Snowman doesn’t have to dress like she does. She does it to remind visitors, and herself, just how rich the history of the lighthouse is.
“The original tower was here in 1716. It was blown up by the British in 1776, and rebuilt in 1783 on the original foundation,” said Snowman.
In 1994, nearly a decade before she became the keeper, Snowman got married here. The first time she climbed the staircase, she says, she felt like she’d done it, quote, “a thousand times before.” At times, she seems to live in the lighthouse’s past as much as its present.
“There were children that lived on this island until 1959,” she said, “Sundays was visitor’s day at Boston light, so the keeper’s wives would provide tea, cookies.”
From a functional standpoint, Snowman doesn’t need to be here. Her predecessors kept Boston Light illuminated and rotating manually, sending the first signal to boats entering Boston Harbor. Those days are gone.
“Because it’s automated, we don’t have to come up here at sunset and flip the switch to turn it on. It stays this way 24/7,” she said.
Still, a 1989 federal says that as the oldest lighthouse station in the US, Boston Light has to have a keeper on site. Snowman got the job after she and her husband wrote a 280-page history of the lighthouse, available on Amazon for 25 bucks. Now, they live in the keeper’s house nearby. Boston is visible, but feels a world away.
“Monday and Tuesday I’m doing maintenance, mowing the lawn, doing things you do on the mainland except you can’t just run to the store. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, all the tools go away, and we become tour guides,” Snowman explained.
Adam wondered if, in this age of computer-aided navigation, an actual physical lighthouse at the mouth of Boston Harbor is still necessary. According to Coast Guard Petty Officer Joshua Peters, the answer is an unequivocal ‘Yes.”
Peters explained, “The trustworthiness of GPS, it could be on and it could be off.” He continued, “You still need something to mark a danger, especially something like a big island, a big harbor like Boston.”
“There’s a history behind it. It’s the oldest lighthouse in America, even before the US was born. And it’s still standing watch. We won’t ever go away from fixed structures like that,” said Peters.
As for Sally Snowman, she’s determined to stay on as Boston Light’s keeper as long as she can.
“I hope to live to be 125, so I don’t know if the Coast Guard wants me around that long or if my body’s going to hold up. The longest keeper was out here 41 years. I’m at 13. Boy, if I could beat him at 42, that would be my dream,” she said.
Again: not as unlikely as you might think.
