St. Augustine Light
The St. Augustine Light tower was built in 1874
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| Location | Anastasia Island, Florida |
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| Coordinates | 29°53′08″N 81°17′19″W / 29.88543°N 81.28852°WCoordinates: 29°53′08″N 81°17′19″W / 29.88543°N 81.28852°W |
| Year first lit | first tower, ca. 1737; second tower, 1874 |
| Automated | 1955 |
| Foundation | first tower, coquina; second tower, brick on coquina |
| Construction | first tower, coquina; second tower, brick |
| Tower shape | first tower, square tower; second tower, conical tower |
| Height | first tower, 52 feet (16 m); second tower, 165 feet (50 m) |
| Original lens | 1824: Winslow Lewis lamps with replectors; 1855: fourth order Fresnel lens; 1874: first order Fresnel lens |
| Range | 1874: fixed lamp, 17 nautical miles; 31 kilometres (19 mi) flashing lamp, 21 nautical miles; 39 kilometres (24 mi) |
| Characteristic | prior to 1936, 3 minute fixed flash; in 1936 changed to 30-second flash |
| Admiralty number | J2866 |
| ARLHS number | USA-789 |
| USCG number |
3-0590 |
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St. Augustine Lighthouse and Keeper's Quarters
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| Built by | Hezekiah H. Pittee |
| Architect | Paul J. Pelz |
| NRHP Reference # | 81000668 |
| Added to NRHP | March 19, 1981 |
3-0590
The St. Augustine Light Station is an active lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida. The current lighthouse stands at the north end of Anastasia Island and was built in 1874; it is the most recent of a number of towers built in the area. The tower is owned by the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, Inc., a not-for-profit maritime museum and private aid-to-navigation. Open to the public, admission fees support continued preservation of the Lighthouse and fund programs in maritime archaeology, traditional wooden boatbuilding, and education.
St. Augustine was the site of the first lighthouse established in Florida by the new, territorial, American Government in 1824. According to some archival records and maps, this "official" American lighthouse was placed on the site of an earlier watchtower built by the Spanish as early as the late 16th century. A map of St. Augustine made by Baptista Boazio in 1589, depicting Sir Francis Drake's attack on the city, shows an early wooden watch tower near the Spanish structure, which was described as a "beacon" in Drake's account. By 1737, Spanish authorities built a more permanent tower from coquina taken from a nearby quarry on the island. Archival records are inconclusive as to whether the Spanish used the coquina tower as a lighthouse, but it seems plausible, given the levels of maritime trade by that time. The structure was regularly referred to as a "lighthouse" in documents—including ship's logs and nautical charts—dating to the British Period beginning in 1763.
In 1783, the Spanish once again took control of St. Augustine, and once again the lighthouse was improved. Swiss-Canadian engineer and marine surveyor Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres marks a coquina "Light House" on Anastasia Island in his 1780 engraving, "A Plan of the Harbour of St. Augustin". Jacques-Nicolas Bellin, Royal French Hydrographer, refers to the coquina tower as a "Batise" in Volume I of Petit Atlas Maritime. The accuracy of these scholars is debated still; DesBarres work includes some obvious errors, but Belline is considered highly qualified. His work provides an important reference to St. Augustine's geography and landmarks in 1764. Facing erosion and a changing coastline, the old tower crashed into the sea in 1880, but not before a new lighthouse was lit. Today, the tower ruins are a submerged archaeological site whose smooth stones may still be seen at low tide.
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Wikipedia