Engineer I.W.P. Lewis visited during his examination of the coast's lights in 1842. Lewis reported that the tower was leaky and the walls were cracked with frost. He added the following criticism:

A new cast-iron lighthouse -- the first of its type in the United States -- was built in the following year

In the U.S., the relatively low cost of cast iron probably appealed to Stephen Pleasonton, the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury and the pinch penny supervisor of U.S. lighthouses. In any case, he authorized the building of a small cast iron lighthouse at Long Island Head, Boston Harbor, in 1844. Prefabricated by the nearby South Boston Iron Company, the tower was built in three sections 7 feet high. It was 12 feet in diameter at the base and only 6 feet in diameter at the top, so the lantern, perched atop the narrow tower, gave the lighthouse a "big-headed" appearance. This lighthouse was demolished in favor of a larger cast iron tower in 1881. A second cast iron tower, essentially identical to the Long Island Head tower, was built in 1846 on Lake Champlain at Juniper Island, Vermont. The Juniper Island Light remained in service until 1954 and survives today in private ownership.