The name "Little Barasway" is derived from the local pronunciation of the word barachois (a lagoon or harbour sheltered from the sea by a strip of beach).

A fisherman, he arrived in nearby Placentia circa 1846 to work for Sweetman & Saunders, a firm based out of Waterford, Ireland.

The first settlers at Point Verde were John and Robert Greene, who acquired the peninsula from Placentia merchants Saunders and Sweetman in 1803.

In 1877, a Mr. Dwyer presented a petition to the Newfoundland House of Assembly from C. Irvine and other residents of Placentia and nearby communities calling for a lighthouse at Point Verde.

The first Point Verde Lighthouse consisted of a rectangular, two-story, flat-roofed dwelling set atop a cement foundation with a square tower rising above its roof.

To access the lighthouse, a road along the beach that was subject to flooding and being obliterated by heavy seas had to be used, as some owners of the "Downs" objected to their property being crossed.

When the Point Verde station was inspected in September 1880, the facing was peeling off the concrete foundation walls, revealing the rottenness within.

At some time during Gus and Joe Greene's service a wooden, square, pyramidal tower, topped by an octagonal lantern room and painted in red and white horizontal stripes, was built on Point Verde.

Besides this tower, a fog signal, and two, one-storey keeper's dwellings were found on the point, and all of these structures were painted with red and white horizontal bands.