Presque Isle North Pierhead Light Erie, PA.

One of two lights at Presque Isle in Erie Pa. 

According to a legend passed down by the Erie Indians, Manitou, the Great Spirit, led the tribe to the shores of an inland sea where they would find game in abundance and enjoy the cool, health-giving breezes coming from the land of snow and ice. One day, the Eries ventured into the great waters to discover where the sun sank in the evenings. This intrusion greatly angered the spirits of the lake who caused a terrible storm to build on the waters. Hearing the cries of his favored people, the Great Spirit stretched forth his left arm into the sea to protect his children from the turbulent water and allow then to paddle their canoes safely back to shore. Where the benevolent arm of the Great Spirit had blocked the waters, a vast sand bar formed which ever since has provided protection and a safe harbor to his favorite people, the Erie.

Early view of Pierhead Lighthouse

Many nations have benefited from the protection provided by the arching sand bar located along Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie shoreline, and the uniqueness of the peninsula, named Presque Isle or “almost an island” by the French, does make one wonder about its origins.
The present white tower with its distinctive black band that is mounted on the outer end of the north pier forming the entrance to Presque Isle Bay and Erie Harbor has been guiding mariners since 1857. Known as the Presque Isle North Pierhead Lighthouse or Erie Harbor Pierhead Light, the beacon has a design that is unique among surviving U.S. lighthouses. The lighthouse exhibited a fixed red light until 1995, when its fourth-order Fresnel lens was removed, and a modern flashing red light was installed in its place. The classic lens can now be seen at the Erie Maritime Museum.
An inspection report of 1837 noted that Erie Harbor, which it called “the largest and best to be found on Lake Erie,” was served by a lighthouse and a beacon. The lighthouse was the Erie Land Lighthouse, which had been erected on a bluff overlooking the harbor in 1818, and the beacon was a light at the entrance to the bay that had just been established. In fact, Congress had appropriated $674 on March 3, 1837 for “completing the beacon-light at the end of the pier which forms the entrance into the harbor of Erie.” The 1837 report indicated that the beacon was “so situated that it cannot be seen by vessels running down the lake until they are very close to it,” and thus recommended that vessels use the lighthouse to gain the upper entrance to the harbor and then follow the beacon light.
In 1854, the wooden beacon light received a “catadioptric apparatus of the sixth order, illuminating an arc of 270°,” which replaced the former apparatus that had be described as being “very defective.” The beacon light and its new sixth-order lens were destroyed the following year, when a vessel entering the harbor during a gale struck the tower. A lens lantern suspended from a gallows frame was displayed on the pier until a replacement tower could be built.

By 1903, the lower portion of the tower, which was originally open, had been sheathed with wood and covered with metal shingles. Steel plates were later placed on the lower portion.

An itemized cost sheet from 1855 records that $1,731 was needed for the labor and materials to build up a new twenty-eight by thirty-three foot pierhead at Erie, Pennsylvania from two feet below the water to seven feet above. The estimated cost for plates, bolts, braces, stairs and railing to construct a two-story, cast-iron tower was $939, while $432 was the expected cost for the lantern. Painting was to run $215, freight $100, superintendence and labor for the tower and lantern another $900. After adding 10% for contingencies and $502 for a sixth-order Fresnel lens, the total cost for a new pierhead and beacon was an estimated $5,250.
The new Presque Isle North Pierhead Lighthouse commenced operation in 1857 and was similar to one built at the same time for Huron Harbor, Ohio. The iron tower stood twenty-six-and-a-half feet tall, and when originally built, the lower portion of the tower was open showing its spiral staircase, and only the watchroom beneath the lantern room was enclosed.
In addition to the pierhead light, various range lights have served nearby to help mariners enter the harbor over the years. In 1854, the Lighthouse Board adopted range lights that had previously been privately maintained. An 1857 Light List shows that there were three range beacons in use at Erie: one on the west end of the pier and two on the peninsula northwest of the pier.
In 1872, new octagonal frame towers were erected on the east and west ends of the recently extended pier to serve as a range for entering the harbor. At this time, the 1857 iron tower was on a crib behind the pier. A fog bell was established at the eastern end of the pier in 1880.
In 1882, the iron tower was moved to the outer end of the pier, and the fog bell was placed in its base. The light's characteristic was changed from fixed white to fixed red at this time. An elevated walk, with a length of 934 feet, was built between the iron tower and the keeper's dwelling in 1883. During the same year, the lenses in use at the North Pierhead Lighthouse and at Crossover Island Lighthouse in New York were swapped, with the North Pierhead receiving a fourth-order lens and Crossover Island a sixth-order lens.

Steam fog whistle that operated from 1899 to 1924 Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

The north pier was extended 450 feet during 1891, forcing the relocation of the iron tower and its fog bell and the addition of more elevated walk. In 1889, a fog signal building was built on the tip of the Presque Isle Peninsula, about a mile-and-a-half north of the pierhead station, and a ten-inch steam whistle commenced operation on August 1 of that year, sounding a five-second blast every thirty seconds when needed.
As the steam whistle was added to the responsibilities of the North Pierhead Station, a second assistant keeper was appointed, and in 1900 a new duplex was built for the head keeper and first assistant, while the second assistant was assigned to the old dwelling. Also in 1900, the fog bell was removed from the base of the iron tower and placed in a open framework structure at the end of pier, which had been extended 470 feet. The open framework structure had previously been used to exhibit a light on the pier at Dunkirk, New York. By 1911, a metal bell tower, with an enclosed upper portion and a square column that served as a drop tube for the weights that power the fog bell striking mechanism, had been placed east of the iron light tower.
An allotment of $38,500 was provided in 1923 to electrify the lights on the pierhead, to build a new compressed-air fog signal 500 feet east of the steam whistle, to erect a new steel tower for the western light on the pier, and to construct a new boathouse. Commercial electricity was supplied to the station via a submarine cable, but a generator was also installed in a new powerhouse at the station in case of a power failure.
The lights on the pier were electrified on July 18, 1924, and the new diaphone fog signal, which was housed in a steel tower and could be operated by remote control from the powerhouse, commenced operation a few weeks later on August 6, replacing the outdated steam whistle. The panorama picture below shows the north pier in 1924 with the following structures:

1. Presque Isle Pierhead Lighthouse - a fixed red light shown from a white and brown pyramidal tower near the far right of the picture with a red, square, pyramidal bell tower 165 yards east of it.
2. Erie No. 1 Light - a fixed white light shown from a thirty-nine-foot-tall white, square, pyramidal tower located near the far left. This light functioned as part of a range.
3. Erie No. 2 Light - a fixed white light shown from a seventy-five-foot-tall mast with a black circular daymark. The light functioned as a range and can be seen above the trees, just left of the duplex.
4. The lifesaving station's lookout tower and boathouse, located between the range lights.

Panorama picture of north pier taken in 1924 - click on the picture for a larger image. Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

The 1857 tower was relocated to its present location in 1940 at which time it was outfitted with its present heavy steel plates and also became home to a tyfon air signal, which replaced the fog bell on the pier. A class "C" radiobeacon was established at the station in 1941.
A string of at least sixteen head keepers, starting with Samuel Foster and ending with Walter Korwek are known to have served at the light. Keeper Robert Allen, who had the longest tenure as head keeper, received many accolades during his service. In 1913, he was awarded a lifesaving medal for rescuing two people who were about to drown while swimming near the pier. Victor Osburg was teaching Ruth McLaughlin to swim, when the current swept the pair into deep water. Keeper Allen was on the pier lighting up the beacon and quickly tied a line to a mop handle, which he was able to toss out to Osburg. After reeling the man in, Keeper Allen removed some of his clothes and plunged into the water after Miss McLaughlin, who had sunk by this time. Keeper Allen swam some sixty yards and then dove down, retrieved the woman, and brought her to the pier. A lifesaving crew had arrived on the scene by this time, and, after expelling water from Mrs. McLaughlin, they performed artificial respiration for four minutes before she finally revived.
Keeper Allen was awarded the lighthouse efficiency pennant for having the best-kept station in the district in 1914 and 1915. In 1918, Allen helped extinguish a fire aboard the fishing tug Gannet, and the following year, he and his assistants were recognized for helping rescue the crew of the steamer Tempest, which foundered in the channel near Erie Harbor. Finally, in 1925, Keeper Allen helped extinguish a fire that raged on the peninsula for several days.
The historic North Pierhead Lighthouse is now a popular destination for fishermen and for people just wanting to take a picturesque stroll in Presque Isle State Park. 

Erie Land Light Erie, Pa.

Got here on our summer 2013 trip 

Anxious to add a port on the Great Lakes to its western frontier, Pennsylvania paid $151,640 for a triangular section of land in 1792 that included forty-five miles of lakeshore on Lake Erie. Three years before this deed was granted by President George Washington, Pennsylvania had paid the Iroquois Nation $2,000 to relinquish its rights to the land and pave the way for the sale. A slender, seven-mile-long peninsula, named Presque Isle, which means “almost an island” in French, extends from a section of this lakeshore and forms a fine natural harbor, nearly five miles long and one mile wide, that has been called the finest on Lake Erie.

Brick lighthouse that served from 1858 to 1866 Photograph courtesy National Archives

Recognizing the need to improve navigation on the Great Lakes and mark important harbors, Congress passed an act in 1810 authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to establish such a light as he deemed proper “on or near Presq’isle, in Lake Erie.” Soon thereafter, two acres of land on a mainland bluff overlooking the eastern entrance to the harbor were obtained from John Kelso. Though Congress provided money for construction of the lighthouse in 1810 and 1811, the work was delayed by the outbreak of the War of 1812. A new allocation of $17,000 was made on March 3, 1817 for the construction of two lighthouses on Lake Erie, and Presque Isle Lighthouse and Buffalo Lighthouse were completed and commenced operation in 1818. These lights are considered the first American lighthouses built on the Great Lakes.
The contract for the lighthouse called for a twenty-foot stone tower with a diameter of 9½ feet at its abase and 7½ feet at its top. Surmounting the tower was a nine-foot-tall iron lantern sheltering an array of ten lamps and reflectors. Thanks to the height of the bluff on which it stood, the lighthouse had a focal plane of ninety-three feet. Nearby, a one-story frame dwelling comprising three rooms was provided for the keeper.
In his forties, Captain John Bone assumed the position of keeper in 1818 and served until 1832 – a length of service that would only be matched by the light’s final keeper. According to the 1830 census, besides Bone, his wife, four girls ranging in age from twenty something to a youngster nearly five, and two boys between the ages of ten and fifteen all called the tiny keeper’s dwelling home.
When an inspector visited the lighthouse in 1838, he found the station in good shape and considered the light to be “one of the most useful on the south shores of the lake.” The lighthouse, however, did share one deficiency with several other lights in the country – its lamp chimneys were so short, “not reaching above the scallops of the reflectors,” that soot collected on the reflectors, reducing their effectiveness.
An inspection in 1851 found that the 1818 stone tower was starting to settle. Metal bands were placed around the tower to stabilize it, but by 1857 it was evident that the tower would have to be replaced. Thomas Mehaffey was hired to oversee the construction of a new tower using brick from Milwaukee. This use of imported brick infuriated several local citizens who felt that bricks of comparable quality could have easily been obtained nearby at much less expense.
With a height of fifty-six feet, the replacement tower was more than twice as tall as its diminutive predecessor. A third-order Fresnel lens, called “a splendid affair” by the local paper, was installed in the tower’s lantern room. Powered by just a single lamp, this lens produced a fixed white light that was visible from a distance of thirteen miles. A new one-and-a-half-story brick dwelling with five rooms was also completed in 1858.
After less than a decade of service, the new lighthouse was suffering from the same problem that had caused the demise of the first tower — a settling foundation — and frost had also contributed to cracks in its walls. The brick lighthouse was dismantled in 1866, and test borings made shortly thereafter revealed a layer of quicksand in the underlying soil that was the cause of the settling. When work commenced on a third lighthouse, plenty of attention was given to providing a proper foundation. The selected site, farther removed from the bluff’s edge, was excavated to a depth of twenty feet and then filled with eight layers of solid oak twelve-inch-square timbers. Atop the timers was placed six feet of crushed limestone set in Portland cement and several courses of stone also set in cement.

Postcard showing bluff-top location of lighthouse

Upon this massive foundation, a forty-nine-foot tower with a diameter of nineteen feet at its base and fourteen feet at its top was constructed using Berea sandstone. The basal diameter was more than twice that of the previous towers and helped to distribute the weight of the tower over a larger area. Six windows were incorporated into the tower: one at the base, one at the first landing, one at the second landing, and three with a semi-circular arch and keystone just below the gallery. Attached to the southern side of the tower is the oil room. The year of completion, 1867, is inscribed in decorative stonework above the lighthouse door. A third-order Fresnel, which produced a fixed white light, was used in the lantern room.
On March 3, 1871, Congress appropriated funds to raise the roof of the keeper’s dwelling to provide for a full second story. Other renovations made at the same time included renewing brickwork around the windows, restoring floors, replastering the dwelling, refurbishing the barn, and building a fence partway around the property.
After a new lighthouse was completed on the lake side of Presque Isle Peninsula in 1873, it took on the name of Presque Isle Lighthouse, and the old lighthouse on the bluff overlooking the harbor was renamed Erie Lighthouse, though locals referred to it as the Erie Land Lighthouse.
Presque Isle Lighthouse reduced the usefulness of the bluff-top lighthouse, and in 1880 the Lighthouse Board decided Erie Lighthouse could be discontinued. The tower, minus its lantern, illuminating apparatus and iron stairs, which were removed and placed in storage at the lighthouse depot in Buffalo, was sold at public auction on March 1, 1881 along with the dwelling for $1,800 to Myron Sanford, owner of the surrounding land.
Local citizens and mariners, who had long relied on the lighthouse, protested the decision, and on July 7, 1884, Congress provided $7,000 to re-establish the light. The property was promptly repurchased, and a custodian was paid to watch the site, which was “endangered by tramps,” until the lighthouse could be reactivated. Most of the metalwork was still in storage in Buffalo, but some pieces were missing or broken and had to be replaced. This unexpected work delayed the reactivation of the light until July 1, 1885, when the light from a new revolving third-order Fresnel was exhibited from the tower.

Erie Land Lighthouse in 1885 Photograph courtesy National Archives

In 1894, a supply of natural gas was piped from a nearby well to the keeper's dwelling, where it was used for fuel. George W. Miller was made the first keeper of the new light, transferring to Erie after sixteen years at Conneaut Lighthouse. Keeper Miller would serve until 1899, when the Erie Land Lighthouse lost its keepers for good. The lantern room was removed from the tower and transferred to Marblehead Lighthouse in Ohio, where it is still in use today.
In 1934, the federal government turned the property over to the City of Erie for “public-park purposes.” The city rents the 1858 keeper’s dwelling to caretakers, who look after the lighthouse property, now known as Lighthouse Park.
In ceremonies held on December 17, 1990, a new wooden lantern room was unveiled at the lighthouse, and on December 26, 1999, exactly one hundred years from when it was last extinguished, a ceremonial relighting was held at the lighthouse. In 2000, archaeologists found the foundation of the original lighthouse at a site 200 yards west of the current tower.
The Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority secured money for a thorough restoration of the lighthouse in the form of $300,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in 1999 and a $90,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission in 2000. After the scope of the work was determined through consultations with the International Chimney Corporation, the Port Authority awarded a contract to Fiske & Sons of Erie, who had extensive historic restoration experience. A new lantern room with a copper roof and ventilator ball was fabricated to replace the wooden faux lantern, which coincidentally was severely damaged by a windstorm in May of 2003, just before the restoration work began. In addition, the interior brick masonry that supports the iron staircase was repaired, the exterior masonry was repointed, a new slate roof was placed on the oil room, a lightning arrestor system was installed, and the entire lighthouse was pressure washed. The restored lighthouse was rededicated on June 19, 2004 when a new state historical marker was unveiled at an event that attracted a sizable gathering of lighthouse enthusiasts.

In 2011, actors from Erie Playhouse dressed up in period costumes and offered tours explaining the history and mystery of the lighthouse to raise funds for the Erie Playhouse Youtheatre. Public interest in the tours, which were offered during Labor Day weekend and the preceding weekend, was deemed sufficient to schedule additional tours in subsequent years

Presque Isle Lighthouse, Erie PA.

Grabbed this this past summer on our way over to New York State and then Maine.  

It was right on the waterfront, part of a big Maritime museum. 

At the City of Erie, a peninsula, over six miles in length, arches out into the water of Lake Erie forming an expansive natural harbor. French explorers recognized the intrinsic value of the harbor and in 1753 constructed Fort Presque Isle on the mainland near the harbor entrance. The name Presque Isle means “almost an island” in French and referred to the nearby peninsula. From Fort Presque Isle, fur traders could portage their goods fifteen miles to Fort Le Boeuf, located at the upper reaches of the Allegheny River near present-day Waterford, and then float downstream to Pittsburgh and on to Louisiana. Fort Presque Isle and its portage thus became a vital link between the French fur trade network in the Great Lakes and its colony on the Gulf Coast.
Control of the Presque Isle region was wrested from the French in 1760 during the French and Indian War, and following the Revolution, the area was incorporated into the State of Pennsylvania in 1792. During the War of 1812, the harbor at Presque Isle was used to construct six warships, including the Brig Niagara, which played a role in Admiral Perry’s convincing victory over the British in the historic Battle of Lake Erie.
The first lighthouse at Erie, and indeed the first American lighthouse on the Great Lakes, was constructed on a mainland bluff in 1818, not far from the site of Fort Presque Isle. For decades, the commercial importance of Erie was directly tied to shipping on the Great Lakes, which increased dramatically in 1824 following the completion of the Erie Canal connecting Buffalo to the Hudson River. The success of New York’s canal prompted Pennsylvania to link Philadelphia to Pittsburgh with a network of canals that opened in 1834. A decade later, the Erie Extension Canal was completed, and Erie was once again a vital link to cities along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
In 1870, plans were begun for a lighthouse on the north shore of the Presque Isle Peninsula that would replace Erie Land Lighthouse on the mainland. This new light would be several miles nearer the lake, and being located directly on the peninsula, would better mark that navigational hazard. Congress appropriated funds for its construction on June 10, 1872, and proposals were solicited for the necessary building materials. The lighthouse was originally going to be built of limestone, but when this provided to be too costly, bricks were used instead.
Construction on the peninsula began in September of 1872, and the light from atop the forty-foot tower attached to the keeper’s dwelling was first exhibited on July 12, 1873. The hazard of landing material at the site was evidenced by the loss of a scow carrying 6,000 bricks.
The walls of the lighthouse tower were built with five courses of brick in order to withstand the fierce storms and buffeting winds that blow off the lake. Though square on the outside, the tower is circular inside and supports a spiral staircase, forged in Pittsburgh and barged to Erie. The brick keeper’s dwelling originally had an oil room, bedroom, dining room, kitchen, and summer kitchen on the main floor, and three bedrooms and a drying room on the second floor. Beneath the dwelling were located a cistern and a cellar. The cost for the lighthouse was $15,000.
Charles Waldo was the first keeper of the Presque Isle Lighthouse, earning an annual salary of $520. On the day of the inaugural lighting, Keeper Waldo wrote, “This is a new station and a light will be exhibited for the first time tonight - there was one visitor.” Prior to sundown, Waldo would have lit the lantern inside the tower’s Fresnel lens and then throughout the night returned to check the oil level in the lamp. In 1882, the tower was equipped with a revolving fourth-order Fresnel lens that alternately produced a red and white flash every ten seconds. Before this, the tower exhibited a fixed white light punctuated each minute by a red flash. As the other lighthouses at Erie displayed fixed lights, the locals often called Presque Isle Lighthouse the “flash light.” The old Erie Land Lighthouse was discontinued in 1880.
In 1876, Waldo’s wife, Mary, gave birth at the lighthouse to a baby girl, the first child to be born on Presque Isle. During their seven-year stay at the lighthouse, the Waldo family had an isolated existence, as the road to the peninsula was not completed until 1927. In fact, Keeper Waldo referred to the station as the loneliest place on earth. To reach civilization, the keepers and their families would have to walk along a 1.5-mile pathway, part of which was originally a boardwalk due to the marshy terrain it traversed, to reach the station’s boathouse on Misery Bay. A lengthy row across the bay and another walk were then required to reach the nearest school or store where provisions could be obtained. The pathway was finally paved in 1925, which led to its being called the “sidewalk trail.”
The Lighthouse Board noted in 1886 that the shoreline in front of the lighthouse had receded thirty feet during the previous two years. To curb this erosion, contractors built a 400-foot-long and 10-foot-wide jetty composed of stone-filled cribs during the summer of 1886. The work was successful as five years later it was noted that the beach had built up substantially on both sides of the jetty, which extended perpendicular to the shoreline.
To increase the range of the light, the height of the tower was increased seventeen feet, four inches in 1896 to produce a focal plane of seventy-three feet. When kerosene was adopted as the fuel for the light in 1898, an oil house was constructed near the northeast corner of the station to provide detached storage for the volatile liquid. A year later, the extended tower was painted white to provide a more prominent daymark for vessels on Lake Erie.
Andrew Shaw, Jr. became keeper of Presque Isle Lighthouse in 1901 and was recognized multiple times by the Lighthouse Service for saving life and property. In 1916, when the tug Henry E. Gillen stranded on the bar at the entrance to the harbor, Keeper Shaw summoned assistant and cared for articles that washed ashore. Two years later, a yacht was driven ashore near the station, and Keeper Shaw provided food, shelter, and clothing for its three passengers. Keeper Shaw prevented a fire near the station from spreading in 1917, and in 1925 both he and the keeper of Presque Isle Pierhead Lighthouse helped fight a fire that burned for several days on the peninsula.
In 1924, commercial electricity reached the lighthouse, and an oil-engine-driven generator was installed at the station in case of power failure. Presque Isle peninsula was set aside as a state park in 1921, and after the road to the peninsula was completed in 1927, Keeper Shaw abruptly retired, as too many visitors were attracted to the lighthouse. Frank Huntington took over the responsibilities of keeper and served until 1944, after which enlisted Coast Guard personnel tended the light. On January 8, 1928, Keeper Huntington, his wife, and son rescued two boys who had fallen through the ice near the station and were in danger of drowning. The Fresnel lens atop the tower was replaced by a modern beacon in 1962.
Additions were made to the front and back of the dwelling in 1989 and 1990, and in 1998 Presque Isle Lighthouse was officially transferred to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The lighthouse is currently used as a residence for park personnel. In 2006, the lighthouse was opened for two days during Discover Presque Isle Weekend, and visitors waited in line for more than two hours to climb the seventy-six steps to the top of the tower. More than 750 people paid $2 to make the climb, and there was still a lengthy line at closing time on the second day.

Keepers of the Erie Lights was formed in 2006 to gather information on Erie’s three lighthouses and to help with their restoration and interpretation. From 2006 through 2009, the committee focused on Presque Isle Lighthouse, and a Historic Structures Report on the lighthouse was published in June of 2007. The report includes a history of the lighthouse and outlines a restoration plan that includes replacing the dwelling’s roof, repointing the masonry, and restoring the porch, oil house, and fence. The public can help the effort by purchasing a Pennsylvania specialty license plate featuring an image of Presque Isle Lighthouse.

Fort Washington Light Maryland

Date of visit:  September 8, 2012  

This light is part of Fort Washington, which I used to live right across the Potomac River from when I lived near Mt. Vernon in Virginia in 1964-66, but we never went there.  It's actually a part of a National Park.

Google Earth shot of the location  

My actual shot of the light.