Est. 1909 · National Register of Historic Places · Architecturally Distinctive Offshore Lighthouse · U.S. Lighthouse Service / Coast Guard Heritage
New London Ledge Lighthouse rises three stories from a concrete pier on the southwest ledge at the mouth of the Thames River, approximately three-quarters of a mile from the New London shoreline. Completed in 1909, the lighthouse was constructed to safeguard increasingly busy shipping traffic entering New London Harbor around a treacherous underwater ridge.
The building's distinctive design reflects an unusual demand from local residents. Affluent New London families with summer estates along the harbor petitioned the Lighthouse Board to construct something more architecturally refined than a typical iron caisson tower. The result was a square brick keeper's quarters in the French Second Empire style, capped by a mansard roof and a cast-iron lantern. The aesthetic compromise produced one of the most architecturally distinctive offshore lights on the Atlantic coast.
The United States Coast Guard assumed operation in 1939 upon its merger with the United States Lighthouse Service. The light was automated in 1987, ending nearly eight decades of staffed keeping. Active aids-to-navigation responsibilities continue, with the optic now drawing power from a solar array.
In 2015 the New London Maritime Society took ownership of the lighthouse through the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. The Society operates seasonal boat tours and ongoing preservation projects. The structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_Ledge_Light
- https://www.nlmaritimesociety.org/ledgelight.html
- https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=800
- https://www.history.uscg.mil/Browse-by-Topic/Assets/Land/All/Article/1969233/ocracoke-lighthouse/
Doors opening/closingPhantom footstepsObject movementEquipment malfunctionPhantom sounds
Long before the New London Maritime Society began offering tours, the Coast Guard crews who staffed Ledge Light maintained an informal record of unexplained occurrences. The keeper at the center of the tradition is known only as Ernie. According to the version published by the Society and recounted in numerous regional histories, Ernie's wife left him for the captain of a Block Island ferry sometime in the mid-twentieth century. The keeper, devastated, is said to have taken his own life from the lantern gallery.
No death certificate has been produced corroborating the specifics of the legend, and the Maritime Society treats Ernie as folklore rather than confirmed history. The narrative nonetheless persists in part because the published Coast Guard logbook attributes a long series of small disturbances to a presence the keepers themselves named Ernie.
The reported phenomena are consistent and modest. Crew members described doors opening and closing without explanation, knocks on bunkroom doors during night watches, the television in the common room switching on and off, and bedcovers pulled from sleeping crew. Later visitors and overnight investigators have reported the foghorn activating outside of automated cycles and small boats moored to the station drifting loose overnight.
The Astonishing Legends podcast and several New England paranormal investigation groups have featured Ledge Light. The Coast Guard's documentation of the lore, even if framed informally, is part of why the legend has endured in regional memory.
Media Appearances
- Astonishing Legends podcast
