although a light at this location was first requested in 1865, funds were not appropriated until 1881. based on experience with ice damage to screw-pile structures, a caisson design was chosen similar to that at sharps island light, which was under construction at the time. ironically, the newly completed light began to list its first winter due to scouring from storms. riprap was laid immediately to halt further damage, and in 1884-85 a program of dredging and additional stone was successful in bringing the light to with a few degrees of vertical. in the same period a room was added to the side to house a fogbell and its ringing mechanism.