The Lighthouse is open to the public on Society Open House dates, posted each year. The Lightkeeper’s cottage is a private residence. Please respect this home! The walkways are available daily.

Scituate Light is arguably the most iconic and beloved of our town’s landmarks. A day does not pass, summer or winter, without someone walking its perimeter and taking in the view.

In the year 1810, the U.S. Congress voted $4,000 to build a lighthouse at Scituate Harbor. The Light, of split granite blocks with a one-and-a-half story house attached, was activated in 1811.

Captain Simeon Bates, the first keeper of Scituate Lighthouse, his wife, and nine children lived at the house. During the War of 1812, Abigail and Rebecca, the young daughters of Keeper Bates, prevented the British from sacking the town. Or so it is said...

Noting the approach of two Redcoat-filled barges from a British ship of war hovering off-shore, the girls snatched a fife and drum. Hiding behind a thick cluster of cedar trees, they made such a din that the British mistook them for an entire regiment and made a hasty retreat. Abigail and Rebecca Bates have gone down in history as the fabled “American Army of Two”, the subject of many storybooks and legends.