St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum
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The St. Augustine light station in St. Augustine, Florida, is a functioning lighthouse, privately maintained as a navigational aid and museum. The current lighthouse was constructed between 1871 and 1874 and is located at the northern tip of Anastasia Island.
History
The Lighthouse and a Watchtower
As a result of Ponce de Leon's discovery of the Gulf Stream, St. Augustine developed into a significant port. Spanish colonists constructed the first lighthouse in St. Augustine in the late 1500s as a wooden watchtower to guard their settlement against nautical invaders and to point other Spanish ships and traders to their thriving port.
The watchtower had a flame atop it, but it was far too feeble to summon ships; it was more of a companion for the guardsman. Regrettably, Sir Francis Drake's invasion in 1586 destroyed the watchtower. Afterward, in 1683, a coquina tower was erected there using the remains of a stone chapel. After 200 years, this lighthouse was destroyed by coastline erosion in 1880.
The current tower was constructed further inland in 1874, six years before the previous lighthouse was lost to erosion. The lighthouse is the oldest surviving brick building in St. Augustine. The first-order Fresnel lens is 12 feet tall, 6 feet wide, and made up of 370 hand-cut prisms organized in a beehive pattern. It was initially installed in 1874. The St. Augustine Lighthouse Museum is located in the Keeper's House, which was constructed in 1876 to provide housing for the families of those who kept watch over the lighthouse.
The Lighthouse and a Watchtower
After World War II, the Lighthouse fell into disrepair, and a fire in 1970 nearly destroyed the Keeper's House. The lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 by the Junior Service League of St. Augustine after years of neglect and destruction. However, after fundraising efforts raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Lighthouse and the Keeper's Mansion were restored to their former splendor.
The original Fresnel lens was successfully fixed and kept up until the first public viewing in 1988. The St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum is a gleaming beacon of Florida's nautical history after 14 years and $1.2 million in repair. The light continued to shine through the night during its years of closure. In 1981, the location was included in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Lighthouse as a Museum
The St. Augustine Lighthouse Museum first welcomed visitors in 1994. In 1998, a board of trustees with a local focus was established. The volunteers on the board are tasked with maintaining the location in trust for future generations. Ownership of the tower and antique Fresnel lens was passed from the U.S. Coast Guard to the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum, Inc. in 2002, under the guidance of current Executive Director Kathy Fleming, via the General Services Administration and the National Park Service. This was the first time a US lighthouse had been transferred to a nonprofit. The Museum keeps the light on as a personal navigational assistant. The museum's name was changed to the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum in 2016.
The goal of the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum is to preserve local maritime history, preserve the history of the country's oldest port, and introduce young people to marine sciences. Along with numerous federal agencies and volunteer organizations like the Florida Lighthouse Association, the museum board and staff also fight to rescue additional lighthouses in Florida and across the country. Over 50 people are employed by the Lighthouse, which receives over 200,000 annual visitors, including 54,000 school-age children.
St. Augustine’s Archaeology
Maritime archaeological sites in St. Augustine and the First Coast are the focus of the museum's ongoing archaeological work, known as LAMP (Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program). Historical shipwrecks have been found and explored by staff archaeologists. In addition, other marine sites such as breakwaters, plantation wharf remnants, and the neighboring ruins of St. Augustine's first lighthouse have also been explored.
The museum also keeps an expanding collection of World War II relics. These relics focus on the history of the U.S. Coast Guard in St. Augustine. Workers at the museum also research other facets of the area’s maritime legacy, such as boat building and the history of the local and regional shrimping business. Several exhibits pertaining to these facets of St. Augustine's maritime history are displayed in the Keeper's home. A volunteer-run heritage boat building program is also run out of the Lighthouse. This program has produced a variety of traditional wooden boats from different eras in the port's history.
Next Amazing Place: The St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Office:
St. Augustine, FL
Call:
(904) 347-9058
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