Colchester Reef Light

Colchester Reef Light is a stone-built tower featuring French architectural style from the 1800s, with wooden frame elements and period details throughout. The structure sits on the museum grounds and displays the construction methods typical of that era's lighthouse design.

This lighthouse was built in 1871 to warn ships away from shallow-water hazards on the lake. Its operation ended in the early 1930s when automatic beacon systems replaced the need for full-time lighthouse keepers.

The lighthouse shows how lighthouse keepers lived and worked on Lake Champlain through original furnishings and daily-use objects on display. Visitors can understand the routines and responsibilities that marked the keeper's life on the water.

You can visit the lighthouse during museum operating hours, and staff members explain the maritime conditions and work that kept ships safe. Walking through the interior gives you a sense of what daily life looked like for the people stationed there.

The entire building was taken apart piece by piece from its original location on the lake and then reassembled on museum grounds. Each component was carefully documented and put back together, showing the dedication required to preserve such a structure.