Between 1921 and 1935 at least seven offshore, unstaffed lighthouses were built off the Florida Keys. They are:

1. Pacific Reef (about 3 miles southeast of Elliott Key)
2. Molasses Reef (about 8 miles southeast of Key Largo)
3. Hen and Chickens Shoal (south of Tavernier)
4. Tennessee Reef (south of Long Key)
5. Cosgrove Shoal (about 20 miles WSW of Key West, south of the Marquesas Keys)
6. Smith Shoal (about 11 miles NNW of Key West)
7. Pulaski Shoal (about 30 miles NW of Key West, north of the Dry Tortugas)

(There may have been an eighth at Soldier Key in Biscayne Bay, but the Light List indicates there is no lighthouse there now.)

The Coast Guard Historian has historic photos of four of these lights (Molasses Reef, Pacific Reef, Tennessee Reef, and Pulaski Shoal). The photo at right is of the Tennessee Reef Light. The National Park Service lists all of them except Pulaski Shoal as Significant Unmanned Aids to Navigation.

These lighthouses were all about 50 ft tall. They had screwpile foundations; triangular, square or hexagonal pyramidal skeletal towers; and enclosed lanterns originally housing Fresnel lenses. (I don't know for sure whether the Cosgrove Shoal and Smith Shoal lights had enclosed lanterns, but it seems reasonable to infer they did.)

Kebby Kelley of the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Civil Engineering in Washington reports that only four of these lights remain: Pacific Reef, Molasses Reef, Tennessee Reef and Hen and Chickens. All of them except Molasses Reef are still active lights; the Molasses Reef tower now carries a daymarker and a NOAA automatic weather station.

Kelley confirms that the Coast Guard has removed the enclosed lanterns, except the one at Tennessee Reef, where the Light List describes a "small black house" atop the tower. In 2000 the town of Islamorada acquired the Pacific Reef Light's lantern and installed it as the centerpiece of the town's Founders Park.

It's debatable whether these towers are lighthouses or not, but they certainly deserve a lot more attention from lighthouse fans than they've received up to now. All the towers are well known to boaters, because each of them is a popular diving or fishing site.

Thanks to Eric Martin, of Orlando, for the closeup photo at left of the Hen and Chickens Shoal Light. In addition to its usefulness as an aid to navigation, the old tower is a very popular roosting site for brown boobies.

I'd be happy to post additional photos of these lights if anyone is able to send them to me.