[3][4] This and several other range lights were built as part of a channel dredging project in the early 1900s.

The new channel (heading north toward Philadelphia) made a series of turns somewhat south of Reedy Island, which lies close to the Delaware shore off Port Penn.

In the case of the Reedy Island Range the original rear light was a locomotive headlight on a tall pole which was first lit in 1904.

[6] The original proposal for a permanent light would have moved the Finns Point Range Light to serve this location instead, but mariners objected to this, and in 1906 the lighthouse board had to request an appropriation for construction of a new tower, which was not funded until 1908.

[6] This tower was of conventional skeletal design, originally equipped with a fifth order Fresnel lens, since replaced with an aerobeacon.