Beacon, The
Nauset Beach, Eastham, MAThe Beacon at Nauset (Eastham) possesses integrity of materials and workmanship as well as associations with the development of aids to navigation in Massachusetts. It was constructed in 1892 as part of a trio of wooden towers which replaced an earlier 1838 trio of brick towers and which were purposely designed to be portable due to the shifting nature of the Nauset bluffs. Although currently inactive, The Beacon remains significant as a component of the only example of a triple light (along with the Twin Lights of Nauset) illustrating an early simple technological effort to distinguish between lights that are geographically close. As technology progressed, it became possible to incorporate all three signal lights within this tower through a revolving mechanism. The Beacon meets criteria A and C and Criteria Consideration exception B (for its architectural and technological value) of the National Register of Historic Places.
Local significance of the structure:Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.