ST. AUGUSTINE – Lighthouses have a romance all their own. They are strong silent beacons rising in solitary splendor above the shoreline. The towers had keepers, rugged individuals and their families who lived right next-door and devoted their lives to making sure sailors at sea had a beacon.
Lighthouses bear the brunt of storms and survive but then, in true tragic romance fashion, they often doomed by being located on the cutting edge of coastal erosion.
Florida, surrounded by water on three sides, has 33 lighthouses. A good place to start your lighthouse journey is the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum.
In 1565 the Spanish settled in St. Augustine. By the end of the 16th century a watchtower was built. On this Spanish watchtower foundation a new tower was built out of coquina rock and first lighted in 1824. Called the St. Augustine Light Station it was the first lighthouse in Florida.
Erosion threatened to topple the tower. A new one, taller and 600 yards further inland, was commissioned. The architect was Paul Pelz, who later designed the Library of Congress.
Finished in 1874, the barber-striped lighthouse is built to last. All materials came by ship. It is constructed with Alabama brick, Philadelphia iron and Georgia granite. The lamp was lit on October 15, 1874. Two years later a two-story brick house, divided in two for two lighthouse keepers and their families, was completed. The keeper’s quarters are a museum today.
The new lighthouse arrived just in the nick of time. During a storm in 1880, the old fell into the sea. The ruins lie underwater in St. Augustine Inlet.
There are 219 steps to the top of the St. Augustine Lighthouse. The view from the top looks over St. Augustine Inlet and the ancient city of St. Augustine. You can buy a ticket for climbing the tower and seeing the museum or opt for the museum alone and forget counting all those stairs. Children must be at least 44 inches tall to be able to climb the tower.
The barber-stri
ped lighthouse rises 165 feet above sea level. Getting to the top is the equivalent of climbing up the stairs of a fourteen-story building.
Visitors may be tempted to look for an elevator button on the ground floor. Dream on. There is no elevator button in this or any other lighthouse. Generations of lighthouse keepers must have wished for elevators. In fact, maybe they had fantasies about sprouting wings to fly to the top every day. The stairs wind up a spiral that gets narrower towards the top. Every landing has windows. Admire the view and catch your breath at the same time.
As you climb, think of the keeper’s jobs – going up and down all those stairs several times a night, bringing fuel to keep the light in the tower burning bright.
To make sure you get the point that this was not a cushy job – a bucket the lighthouse keeper had to fill with fuel is in a stand at St. Augustine lighthouse. The first fuel they used was lard oil, replaced later by kerosene.Visitors are asked to pick up the empty bucket. It weights 30 pounds empty. Now think about it full.
A sign asks what you would do to make it easier carrying that fuel up the stairs. I looked up the spiraling staircase and wondered about setting the heavy bucket down on each step. Not an efficient idea. Surely there has to be a better way.
Electricity didn’t arrive until 1936. It must have felt like such a luxury to flip a switch on the ground floor to light the light instead of carrying fuel up 219 steps.
For those who do the climb the gift shop sells a certificate (the cost is .94 cents) saying that you have done the deed and are entitled to all the privileges that go with such an accomplishment.
Every lighthouse has a unique flash pattern signature, or nightmark. St. Augustine’s pattern is a 30-second fixed flash. For mariners traveling during the day there is a daymark – the building’s black and white strips with a red lantern. From the night and day marks, mariners can establish their location.
Visitors can see the beautiful handcrafted Fresnel lens that was first used in the lighthouse. It is located in the museum.
From 1876 to 1955 the St. Augustine Lighthouse had keepers. The last one resigned in 1955 when the light was automated. Abandoned for a decade or more, vandals and arson took its toll on the lighthouse station. The Junior Service League of St. Augustine began a massive restoration in 1980 and the results are impressive.
The museum, housed in the brick two-story building that was home to the keepers, shows how keepers and their families lived and displays historical events including the use of this coastal area to train soldiers in World War II. The chase for German submarines offshore is recorded. A rotating exhibit shows artifacts found in shipwrecks. The remains of almost 300 ships, sunk offshore from 1572 to 1999, lie in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
On full moon nights the lighthouse has a special event called “Sunset Moonrise”. Cost is $23 for non members and includes a champagne toast atop the tower. The next event is July 29 from 7:45 p.m. to 9 p.m. To find out more, contact Pam at (904) 829-0745.
Two lighthouse books worth mentioning:
“Florida Lighthouses” by Kevin McCarthy, University of Florida Press, 1990 and “Florida Lighthouse Trail”, Thomas W. Taylor, editor for the Florida Lighthouse Association, Pineapple Press, 2001.
This story appeared in the July 2007 issue of The Observer. Lucy Beebe Tobias is a writer, photographer and artist in Ocala, Florida. Her book, 50 Great Walks in Florida, is now available for pre-order at www.amazon.com
To know more
What: St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum
Where: 81 Lighthouse Avenue, St. Augustine, Fl. 32080
Phone: (904) 829-0745
Web site: www.staugustineligihthouse.com
Admission: If climbing the tower and doing the museum, admission is $8 adults, seniors 60+ costs $7, children 6-11 pay $6. Visiting the museum only costs $6 adults, $5 seniors and $4 for ages 6-11
Getting there: Go through St. Augustine on A1A, cross the Bridge of Lions. Once on Anastasia Island, turn left onto Lighthouse Avenue (across from the Alligator Farm)
Nearby: Anastasia State Park, Alligator Farm and historic St. Augustine