Damage at St. Marks Light. Photo copyright Eric S. Martin, used by permission.
This story is based on an article in Florida Today on January 27, 2006.
The $750,000 renovation of Cape Canaveral Lighthouse passed a major milestone Thursday, January 26, when a huge crane successfully lifted the nine-ton lantern room off the tower for restoration. U.S.Air Force project managers expect the renovation to be complete by mid-summer.
Built in 1868 and relocated in 1894, the lighthouse is the tallest U.S. cast iron light tower at 145 ft (44 m). In addition to rebuilding the lantern room, the project will sandblast, repair, and repaint the 138-year-old iron shell. "That surface hasn't been addressed for 100 years," said Robert Elliott, the project engineer for the restoration project.
The brass roof of the original lantern, which now graces a gazebo at the Air Force Space and Missile Museum, will be returned to the lighthouse.
Because it is located in a restricted area, the lighthouse is the least-known of Florida's major towers. "I've gotten calls from people from as far as San Francisco wanting to come and see this lighthouse," said Don George, natural/cultural resources manager for Patrick Air Force Base.
They'll get their chance after the restoration is complete. "We would like to have weekly tours," said David Paterno, president of the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation. "It will be within a year that we start increased access."
The Foundation, formed in 2001, has an agreement with the Air Force to help maintain the lighthouse and begin regular public tours. The Foundation also hopes to reconstruct the keeper's house and other buildings that were formerly part of the light station.
This story is based on an article in the Bradenton Herald of October 28, 2005.
The St. George Lighthouse Association is hoping all is not lost in their efforts to save the Cape St. George light, which collapsed into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico on October 21.
"Our efforts are not over," said Association member Terry Kemp. "People have been saying, 'Oh, it fell over. That's too bad. I guess this is the end.' Well, it's not over. We are going to keep working."
The lighthouse, endangered and undermined by beach erosion over the years, collapsed in a roar on Friday afternoon the 21st. "I didn't really think anything about it until we went around to do our routine check on the lighthouse," said George Watkins of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. "I just couldn't believe it. That's what I've told everybody: It's just unbelievable. It just crumbled."
The Association has asked a local engineering firm, H.G. Harders and Son, Inc., to begin research options for salvaging the lighthouse. There are many large sections of the tower visible in the shallow water, and the hope is that these sections could be removed by barge and stored until the lighthouse can be rebuilt on a safer site.
Thanks to Eric Martin for this preliminary report on damage to Florida lighthouses from Hurricane Dennis.
Damage at St. Marks Light. Photo copyright Eric S. Martin, used by permission.
[I] just got back from the Florida Lighthouse Association quarterly meeting (it was held in Tallahassee this time.)
The report on Cape St. George is the lighthouse is a little more in the Gulf of Mexico, but is still standing upright. The St. George Lighthouse Association already has put in for an application for a grant from the State of Florida to help save it again.
Crooked River reports that the hurricane did a sand blast job on the tower taking off some of the remaining paint (needs to come off anyway).
St. Marks had a big hole in a panel of glass in the lantern room which unfortunately let in a flood of water. The storm surge was 10 feet which came up to the middle of the keeper's steps, but that building is OK.
Pensacola did not have a report yet except to say the Navy Base came out with little damage but the base was closed before the meeting.
No report from Cape San Bias.
This story is based on a news story from ABC channel 7 in Southwest Florida dated May 26, 2004, and from an article in the Southwest Florida News-Press of May 11, 2004.
The Coast Guard has agreed not to deactivate a historic range lighthouse, but preservationists are increasingly concerned about its condition.
The lighthouse is the Port Boca Grande Entrance Range Rear Light, now called the Gasparilla Island Light. The 100-foot tall pyramidal skeletal tower was built in 1881 as the Delaware Breakwater Range Rear light at Lewes, Delaware. Retired from service there in 1918, it was disassembled in 1921, stored by the Lighthouse Service, rebuilt on Gasparilla Island in 1927, and placed back in service in 1932.
The Coast Guard had proposed to turn off the light at the end of May, but boaters and island residents didn't want to see the lighthouse go dark. “It’s a human feeling, we like to see something, especially on a stormy light,” said Kathleen Rohrer, executive director of the Barrier Island Parks Society. Meanwhile, Florida State Parks has been negotiating with the federal governement to acquire the light as an addition to Gasparilla State Park. "It’s just a matter of time," said park manager Reggie Norman. "The wheels turn slowly." The park already includes the Boca Grande Lighthouse, just a few miles away.
Local lighthouse fans are alarmed about the condition of the tower and hope the state can do something to save it before it's too late. Rod Storle of the Coast Guard says the structure is high maintenance and stress and age are twisting some of the cast iron parts and forcing bolts out of position. "It's actually twisted and bent - bolts are starting to explode," said Storle.
Fixing the lighthouse won't be cheap; it took $1.5 million in state funds to restore the similar Anclote Keys Light north of St. Petersburg.
This story is based on an article in the St. Petersburg Times of September 11, 2003.
After many years of effort and $1.5 million, the Anclote Key Light is set to shine again on Saturday, September 13. The transformation is astounding. "I have nightmares of what it looked like before," said Larry McSpadden, president of the Gulf Island Alliance. It was the Alliance and the Tampa bay Harbour Lights club that spearheaded the restoration effort.
The restoration and relighting will be celebrated at a ceremony and concert at Sunset Beach in Tarpon Springs, overlooking the offshore tower. The event is a fundraiser to support rebuilding the two keeper's quarters on the island as a museum and educational facility.
The original keeper's houses were burned by vandals after the Coast Guard abandoned the light station in 1985. Vandals also shot out the windows of the lantern room. Time and salt air did the rest, turning the tower into a rusty wreck. Restoring the lighthouse was no easy task, but International Chimney Corporation has completed it in the scheduled eight months of work.
To protect the lighthouse in the future, Florida State Parks has assigned Connie Wiesehan as lighthouse keeper and park ranger for the Anclote Key Preserve State Park. She'll watch out for the solar-powered light, flashing every 20 seconds, and she'll climb the 105 steps to the lantern if it needs attention.
This story is based on an Associated Press dispatch of January 19, 2003.
The third-order Fresnel lens of the Ponce Inlet light will soon shine again from the top of the tower, the nation's second-tallest masonry lighthouse. As part of a major lens restoration project, workers and volunteers are cleaning and polishing the lens before it is returned to the tower, sometime this coming summer.
The rotating lens, which has a range of 20 miles, shone from the tower from 1933 until it was replaced, in 1970, by a rotating aerobeacon. Restoration work is needed on 54 panels of the lens, each panel worth approximately $50,000.
At the same time, restoration is also going forward on the original first-order lens used from 1887 to 1933. That lens, long lost, was returned to Ponce Inlet five years ago. It is on display at the light station's lens exhibit building along with the 1868 first-order lens of the Cape Canaveral Light.
About half of the funding for the restorations is being provided by the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association. Restoration of the third-order lens is also supported by a $39,000 grant from Volusia County. A $35,000 historic exhibit grant from the Florida Department of State is helping to restore the first-order lens.
Latest revision January 27, 2006. Site copyright 2006 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.