About the Light Station

A Brief History of the St. Augustine Light Station

The Spanish Watchtower

St. Augustine has always been a challenge for mariners. The conditions of the weather, water, and land are a hazard for citizens and marauders alike. After Pedro Menendez founded St. Augustine in 1565, he decided to build a wooden tower on the north end of Anastasia Island. The tower was to be manned by a single Spanish soldier to help identify incoming ships. Primarily a defensive measure for the settlement, the tower also served as a landmark for sailors attempting to locate the town from sea, amid the wilderness. The watchtower was meant to aid ships to the location of the port but it also showed the way for Sir Frances Drake in May of 1586. Drake, an English privateer, pillaged and burned the city and the tower.

The Coquina Lighthouse

In 1683, the Spanish government replaced the wooden tower with a sturdier structure made of coquina stone. The new structure was a complex that included a watchtower, guardhouse, well, and an ammunition storage house, all surrounded by a high coquina wall. With each succession of national ownership, the complex was refurbished and enlarged, attesting to its strategic importance for the safety of the town it guarded. The towerís importance as an aid to navigation certainly increased over time as the harbor became a trade destination.

Within six months of Florida becoming a United States territory in 1821, the Territorial Council forwarded a request to President Monroe for lighthouses to be built at Pensacola and St. Augustine. As a result, the Spanish coquina guardhouse/watchtower was converted to a true lighthouse. On April 5, 1824, Juan Andreu was named the first lightkeeper of the first lighthouse in the State of Florida. Ten big oil lamps in front of mirrors produced the light.

"The lighthouse lately erected in St. Anastatia Island, at the entrance of the harbor of S. Augustine, will be lighted on Monday, the 5th inst. The light will be steady. It is situated on the north end of the said Island, in lat. 29,53, N. lon. 31, 80, W. from London. Vessels bound to this port, if running down from the north, must not bring the light further to the westward than SW. by W.. If the wind be to the S. bring the light to bear W. if moderate, come to an anchor in from 9 to 7 fathoms water ñ the bottom will be found muddy. The pilots who attend the bar board vessel outside when the weather will permit; but if not they bring them in by signal, which they wave, as they wish the vessel to steer. All vessels bound to this place will show how much water they draw by signal, hauling down the flag and hoisting it again as often as the number of feet which they draw. Rates of pilotage, $2 per foot."

New York American Newspaper April 30, 1824

In 1855, Joseph Andreu, cousin of Juan Andreu, had to learn how to use the new lard oil lamp and a new fourth-order Fresnel lens. In 1859, Joseph Andreu fell to his death while painting the tower. His wife, Maria de los Dolores Mestre, took over and became the first female lightkeeper in St. Augustine.

During the Civil War, Florida joined the Confederacy and the flame was extinguished in 1862 by Captain George Gibbs to prevent Union attack by sea. Paul Arnau, collector of customs in St. Augustine, removed and buried the lens. It was eventually recovered, but the light was not relit until 1867.

The New Brick Lighthouse

By 1870, it was evident that the sea was encroaching upon the coquina lighthouse and it was in danger of collapse. Authorities acquired five additional acres of land west of the old tower and construction began in 1871. The new lighthouse was built of brick on a concrete foundation. ¹ St. Augustine, Currituck, and Bodie Island lights are the same lighthouse design except for the paint schemes. Paul J. Peltz was the Chief draftsman for the Lighthouse Board. He later designed the Library of Congress. The first order Fresnel lens was first lit on October 15, 1874 and the fourth order lens was decommissioned. ² Four years later the old coquina keeperís house fell into the ocean. The tower collapsed in a storm two years later. ³

In 1885, the Lighthouse Board changed the lamp fuel to kerosene. The kerosene lamp contained five concentric wicks. In 1909, a kerosene incandescent oil-vapor lamp was installed. This lamp used a single mantle. In 1936, the St. Augustine light became the last Florida lighthouse to get electricity. Since there was no oil to carry or soot to clean off the lens the number of keepers was reduced to two.

In 1939, the U. S. Lighthouse Service was abolished and its duties were transferred to the United States Coast Guard. In 1955, the light was automated. A photocell gauges sunlight intensity and turns the light bulb inside the Fresnel lens on and off. On-site keepers were no longer needed. Lamplighters, Coast Guard employees living off-site, regularly checked on the light. Since automation, the lens rotates continuously. This prevents flat spots from developing on the bronze carriage wheels from the weight of the lens. The movement also breaks up the sunís rays during the day.

The Junior Service League of St. Augustine ìfor 11 years had labored to breathe life back into the keeperís house and secure the future of the tower.î To learn more about their efforts, see From First Light: The Story of the St. Augustine Lighthouse.

1. The Lighthouse contains an estimated 1.2 million bricks.
2. The lens is the lighthouseís original first order Fresnel (pronounced Fruh-nel) lens dating to 1874. It stands 9.5 feet tall and contains 370 hand-cut prisms, including three bulls-eyes, set in brass frames. Before electricity, the keepers had to wind the clockworks system that kept the lens turning. Weights were suspended from the rotating mechanism at the top, through the center of the tower. They hung just above the weight well in the bottom of the tower. In the lens room the keepers cranked this weight up to the first landing. Once wound, it would run close to 3 hours. This equipment is no longer in the tower. Today a 90-second lens rotation, with the three evenly spaced bullís-eyes, results in a night signature of ìone fixed light, white flash every 30 secondsî. The beam can be seen a maximum of about 20 nautical miles, or 21.5 statute miles out to sea (1 nautical mile = 1.15 statute miles). Due to the many variables of the lightís range equation, this is an estimated number. In 1911 the US Lighthouse Service reported the distance as 18.75 miles but Ö without providing all the specifications. Of course, over land the beam does not reach as far due to interference.
3. The St. Augustine Lighthouse, with its distinctive black and white spiral and red top is 165 feet tall. There are 219 steps to the observation deck, including the granite steps leading up to the metal stairs. Ten additional iron steps, accessible only to lens personnel, go up to the lantern inside the lens room. The observation deck is about the height of a fourteen-story building or the bridge of a destroyer.

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