Onshore Skeletal Lighthouses

Onshore Skeletal Lighthouses, 1861-1910

Skeletal frame light towers are commonly built as aids to navigation; most of them are not considered to be lighthouses. However, during the late nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth, larger skeletal towers were installed at several dozen light stations throughout the country. These lights were tended by keepers (at least originally), so they were and are listed as lighthouses. The identifying characteristic of these lighthouses is the central cylinder, a broad tube up the middle of the tower that enclosed the stairway and protected the keeper as he climbed to the lantern room. All the skeletal lighthouses had enclosed lantern rooms, and most had enclosed watch rooms below the lantern.

Skeletal towers became very popular with Congress because they cost less than half the price of a stone or brick tower of the same height. Since they were assembled from prefabricated sections, they could be built quickly, even at remote locations. If necessary, they could also be disassembled and shipped to a new location.

"Whitefish Point Class" Michigan Experimentals (1861)

The first onshore skeletal lighthouses were three experimental towers built in Michigan in 1861. Two were built on Lake Superior, one at Whitefish Point and the other at Manitou Island off the Keweenaw Peninsula. These are short lighthouses, about 75 feet tall, connected to their keeper's quarters by an enclosed passageway. The towers have a square footprint, but the watch and lantern rooms are octagonal. The lowest section of the tower is vertical rather than pyramidal; this differs from all the subsequent designs.

The experiment was evidently successful, as both of these lighthouses have remained in use to the present day. The Whitefish Point Light is beautifully preserved by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. The Manitou Island Light, however, is increasingly endangered by beach erosion.
The third lighthouse of this class was the DeTour Point Light, built o¨¨n Lake Huron at the mouth of the St. Mary's River. It was demolished in 1931, when the offshore DeTour Reef Light was built to replace it.

Whitefish Point, Michigan; NPS photo by Ralph Eshelman

"Liston Class" Delaware Bay Hexagonals (1876-1881)

Liston Range Rear Light, Delaware;
NPS photo by Ralph Eshelman
In 1876 the Lighthouse Board needed to build half a dozen tall lighthouses as the rear lights of ranges along the Delaware Bay and River. To meet this need, the Board built skeletal towers with a hexagonal footprint. These "Liston class" lighthouses have very sturdy legs and light cross-bracing. The central cylinder is large and the round lantern and watch rooms are small (the three 1876-77 towers lack watch rooms completely), giving the towers a "small head on a big body" appearance. The towers range in height from 85 to 120 feet. Five of the six towers survive, but three have been relocated.

Deepwater Range Rear NJ (1876), demolished in 1956
Port Penn Range Rear DE (1877), relocated to Liston Range Rear DE in 1906
Finns Point Range Rear NJ (1877)
Schooner Ledge Range Rear PA (1880), relocated to Michigan Island (2) WI in 1929
Tinicum Island Range Rear NJ (1880)
Delaware Breakwater Range Rear DE (1881), relocated to Boca Grande Entrance Range Rear FL in 1932

There is a seventh hexagonal skeletal lighthouse, the Hilton Head Range Rear Light in South Carolina (1880). Unique in design, it differs from the Delaware Bay lights in having lighter weight legs and a hexagonal rather than round lantern room.

"Sanibel Class" Square Skeletals (1884-1910)

Beginning in 1884, the Lighthouse Board adopted a standard plan for skeletal lighthouses having a square footprint. This plan was used for lighthouses with heights up to about 100 feet. The lighthouses have octagonal watch and lantern rooms, each with a gallery. In taller towers, a distinctive feature of the design is an extra leg running about half way up the side of each face. Shorter towers (65-75 feet) have only three sections and lack these extra legs.

At least fourteen of these lighthouses survive:

Sanibel Island FL (1884)
Cape San Blas FL (1885)
Anclote Key FL (1887)
Coney Island NY (1890), shorter design
Point Loma (2) CA (1891), shorter design
Crooked River (Carrabelle) FL (1895)
Chandeleur LA (1896)
Marblehead MA (1896)
LaPointe (2) WI (1896), shorter design
Plum Island Range Rear WI (1897), shorter design
Duluth Harbor South Breakwater Inner MN (1901), shorter design
Sapelo Island (2) GA (1905), relocated to South Fox Island (2) MI in 1934
Bellevue Range Rear DE (1909)
Reedy Island Range Rear DE (1910)

Among lost lighthouses of this class are the Brazos River Light in Texas, demolished in 1967, the Throg's Neck Light in New York City, demolished in 1906, and the Waackaack Range Rear Light in New Jersey, demolished in the late 1950's.

Reedy Island Range Rear, DE; NPS photo by Ralph Eshelman

"Rawley Point Class" Tall Octagonals (1894-1907)

Cape Charles, VA;
NPS photo by Ralph Eshelman
Around 1900, it became necessary to build several tall lighthouses. Unfortunately, Congress was no longer approving expensive new masonry towers, so the Lighthouse Board developed a robust skeletal design for lighthouses with an octagonal footprint, sturdy legs, a large lantern room suitable for a Fresnel lens of the first order, a two-story watch room, and two or three galleries. Only five of these graceful and imposing lighthouses were built, and sadly only three survive:

Rawley Point (Twin Rivers Point) WI (1894, 111 feet)
Cape Charles VA (1895, 191 feet)
Hillsboro Inlet FL (1907, 137 feet)

The Cape Charles Light is actually the second-tallest U.S. lighthouse, only a few feet shorter than the famous brick tower at Cape Hatteras. It formerly had a twin, the 191-foot Hog Island Light, also in Virginia, built in 1896. The fifth lighthouse of this class was a 150-foot tower at Cape Fear, North Carolina; it was built in 1903 and demolished in 1958.

Saving the Skeletals

With regular maintenance, the skeletal lighthouses hold up well over time. Most of them are still in service and remain in pretty good shape. In 2000 the Coast Guard carried out a thorough restoration of the Cape Charles Light, a project that illustrates the challenges involved in conservation of these iron towers. A number of structural elements of the tower had corroded to the point of failure, but because the tower is over-engineered other elements were holding it up nicely. The corroded parts had to be replaced with modern structural steel, which should suffice for many years. Carrying out the work was a problem, though. Like many of the skeletal towers, the lighthouse is in a remote and difficult location. Pieces of steel weighing up to a ton and a half had to be landed on an island with no dock, carried through an environmentally sensitive wetland, and installed in the face of heat, insects, and the threat of hurricanes.

If skeletal towers are abandoned, they corrode and deteriorate rapidly. This was the situation at Anclote Key, Florida, which was the only onshore skeletal lighthouse on the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List. Fortunately, a local support group and Florida State Parks worked together to save the light station, and in 2003 the International Chimney Corporation carried out a complete restoration. There is concern for two other deactivated towers, at Crooked River, Florida, and Plum Island, Wisconsin; support groups are active on behalf of both towers. The lighthouses at Chandeleur, Louisiana, and Manitou Island, Michigan, are endangered by erosion of the islands on which they stand. There are no preservation groups for these towers.

Long ignored by the public, the pyramidal skeletal lighthouses are beginning to receive the attention they deserve. With care, these towers can be preserved for future generations of lighthouse fans.

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