Old Scituate's Light's first 198 years

1810 Congress approves funding to build the lighthouse.

1811 Lighthouse and lightkeeper's cottage built on six acres of land on Cedar Point; Simeon Bates is appointed lightkeeper and lives there with his wife and nine children.

1814 Two of the Bates offspring - Abigail and Rebecca - notice a British warship entering Scituate Harbor. They play "Yankee Doodle" on a fife and drum, hoping the Redcoats will think a militia is onshore. The British sail away, and the sisters are immortalized as "The American Army of Two."

1827 The 25-foot lighthouse tower grows by 15 feet and gets a new lantern room.

1860 After Minot's Light is activated in November, Scituate Light is extinguished.

1908 "Crumbling Tower at Scituate" is the headline of a Boston Globe article, which says, "New England has few ruins so picturesque as the abandoned lighthouse tower at Scituate."

1916 Town buys the lighthouse from federal government for $1,000.

1921 Town spends $500 for repairs to cottage.

1930 Lighthouse is repaired and lantern room rebuilt.

1968 Scituate Historical Society takes over administration.

1987 Lighthouse goes on National Register of Historic Places.

1994 Lighthouse lamps are relit.