Sapelo Island Light

Lighthouse

31°23′29″N 81°17′08″W / 31.39127°N 81.28568°W / 31.39127; -81.28568TowerConstructed1820ConstructionBrickHeight80 ft (24 m)ShapeConicalMarkings6 alternate red and white horizontalHeritageNational Register of Historic Places listed place

LightFirst lit1820Deactivated1905 to 1998Focal height23 m (75 ft)

LensLewis lamp (1820)
Fourth-order Fresnel lens (1854)CharacteristicFixed white varied by a white flash every 45 s

Sapelo Island Lighthouse

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

U.S. Historic district

LocationS end of Sapelo Island, S of University of Georgia Marine Institute, Sapelo Island, GeorgiaArea205.9 acres (83.3 ha)Built1905ArchitectWinslow LewisNRHP reference No.97000335^[1]Added to NRHPAugust 26, 1997

Sapelo Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse in Georgia, United States, near the southern tip of Sapelo Island. It is the nation's second-oldest brick lighthouse and the oldest survivor among lighthouses designed by Winslow Lewis.^[2] The lighthouse, oil building, the cistern, the footing of the 1905 light, the ruins of the fortification, and the associated range light were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

The lighthouse is a 65-foot (20 m) brick structure, about 30 feet (9.1 m) in diameter at the base and 12 feet (3.7 m) at the top. Its brick walls are several feet thick at the bottom, tapering to about two feet thick at the top.^[3]

History

Skeleton tower that stood from 1905 to 1933

Sapelo Island Lighthouse was built in 1820. It was designed and built by Winslow Lewis. It had fifteen Lewis lamps with 16 in (41 cm) reflectors. In the 1850s, the tower was raised by 10 ft (3.0 m) and a fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed in 1854. The lens was removed during the Civil War. It was extensively repaired after an 1867 storm and relit in 1868. The tower was damaged by a strong hurricane in 1898.

A pyramidal 100 ft (30 m) skeletal tower lighthouse with a third-order Fresnel lens was built in 1905. This tower was dismantled and relocated in 1934 to South Fox Island, Michigan.

The 1820 lighthouse was inactive from 1905 to 1998, when it was restored to its 1890 appearance and was relit (with a modern light and lens).^[4]^[5]^[6] Is now maintained by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and is unofficial.

Keepers

Jeremiah Lester 1821 – 1825
William Donnelly 1827 – 1841
Henry M. Caulder 1843 - ?
William Thomas 1845 – 1847
Robert B. Mason 1849 – 1851
Robert Hale ? – 1853)
Alexander Hazzard 1853 – 1862, 1868 – 1869
W.W. Brown 1869
James C. Clark 1869 – 1870
Montgomery P. Styles 1870 – 1871
J.T. Clancy 1871
Hiram Hammett 1871 – 1872
John Bradwell 1872 – 1873
James Cromley Sr. 1873 – 1889
William G. Cromley 1890 – 1900
James Cromley Jr. 1900 – 1921
Robert H. Cromley 1928 – 1933^[7]

References

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
^ LighthouseFriends
^ Kenneth H. Thomas Jr.; Richard Cloues (March 3, 1997). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Sapelo Island Lighthouse". National Park Service. Retrieved January 28, 2017. with eight photos
^ "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Georgia". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on May 1, 2017.
^ Roberts, Bruce; Jones, Ray (2002). Southern Lighthouses: Outer Banks to Cape Florida (3 ed.). Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press. p. 57. ISBN 0-7627-1243-0.
^ "Sapelo Island Lighthouse, Georgia at Lighthousefriends.com".
^ Lighthouse friends

External links

Media related to Sapelo Island Light at Wikimedia Commons

Lighthouses in Georgia (U.S. state)

Main: List of lighthouses in the United States

Georgia (U.S. state) portal

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