The octagonal, 78-foot tower was made with red Connecticut sandstone, brought to the site by ship. An iron lantern room was placed atop the tower and surmounted by a round copper ventilator, the opening of which was kept facing leeward by a weather vane. Various forms of illumination have been used in the tower, starting most likely with a spider lamp, followed by Argand lamps and reflectors, a first-order Fresnel lens, and a revolving third-and-a-half-order bivalve Frensel lens that was placed in operation in the lantern room in 1903. The familiar reddish-brown band that bisects the lighthouse was also added in 1903. Before that time, the tower was painted all white.

A new brick keeper’s dwelling was built at the point in 1837 and remains standing to this day, located at the bottom of the hill west of the tower. In 1860, three years after the first-order Fresnel lens was installed, the tower was heightened fourteen feet to make it a proper first-class coastal beacon. Besides the extension, the tower’s walls were also strengthened to support the heavy lens. A new lantern room was put in place, and the wooden stairs in the tower were replaced with an iron staircase. The large, two-story keeper’s dwelling that stands just west of the lighthouse was also constructed as part of these renovations carried out that year.