St. Marks Lighthouse

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 22, 2024

1. St. Marks Lighthouse Marker

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From the National Register Nomination prepared by Mildred L. Fryman, 7/25/1971:
The

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 22, 2024

2. St. Marks Lighthouse Marker

The marker is on the left side of the front/southwest lighthouse entrance (at the top of the staircase).

St. Marks Lighthouse is composed of a tower and an attached residence for lightkeepers. The structure is constructed of limestone and brick coated with cement and painted white. The tower itself is conical in shape extending to a height of eighty feet. It widens slightly at the top to accommodate a small polygonal superstructure housing the light and a catwalk on a round platform. At intervals on the side of the tower are small, shuttered windows spaced to coincide with the circular staircase within.

The most notable features of the rectangular keepers' residence are the slanting facades of the long sides. In the seaward side are seven windows, irregularly spaced, which are cut high in the walls and are shuttered and barred. On the other side of the keeper's house is a high porch extending nearly its entire length. In the middle of this porch is another projection, a little wooden room, dividing it into two sections. The pitched roof supported by wooden posts extends over the porch.

In response to initial steps taken in 1827 and 1828 requesting action on behalf of Congress, federal funds were appropriated for a lighthouse at St. Marks.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 22, 2024

3. St. Marks Lighthouse (northwest elevation)

The structure which was begun in 1829 and completed in 1831 was erected by Winslow Lewis, the official “lighthouse builder” for the national government. The limestone blocks used for construction of the lighthouse were taken from the nearby ruins of the old Fort of San Marcos de Apalache or from a limestone quarry located near the site of that fort but across the Wakulla River.

Like many other lighthouses constructed during that period, the St. Marks Lighthouse was built too close to the sea. During the winter of 1841-42 it was, therefore, relocated a short distance inland in order to avoid further damage by the sea. In doing this the lighthouse was taken down and rebuilt, again by Winslow Lewis.

During the Civil War, the St. Marks Lighthouse played a role in military affairs primarily because of its strategic position on the coast. From the spring of 1862 to early 1864, coastal raids comprised the great bulk of hostile action by Federal troops against the Confederacy in Florida. A raid at St. Marks in June 1862 was typical of the military activities of the period. At that time, the woodwork on the lighthouse and the keeper's house

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 22, 2024

4. St. Marks Lighthouse (north elevation)

adjoining was burned. In response to the danger of raids of this nature Confederate Army pickets were positioned in or near the lighthouse on a regular basis, and skirmishes with Federal troops occurred from time to time. In March 1865 one of the largest raiding efforts launched against the interior of West Florida began with a landing of one thousand Federal troops at the St. Marks Lighthouse on March 4. This was a prelude to the Battle of Natural Bridge near Tallahassee on March 6, 1865.

After the Civil War, the lighthouse continued to serve the coastal area as a manned light until the nationwide transfer of all lighthouses to the supervision of the Coast Guard in 1939. The lighthouse now occupies a 65-acre site within the St. Marks, National Wildlife Refuge.

Excerpt:  The St. Marks Light is the second-oldest light station in Florida. It is located on the east side of the mouth of the St. Marks River, on Apalachee Bay. In the 1820s, the town of St. Marks, Florida

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 22, 2024

5. St. Marks Lighthouse Tower

was considered an important port of entry. The town served as a port for the prosperous planting region of Middle Florida and some counties of South Georgia. Growers hauled their agricultural products down to the port town in wagons by way of an early road which connected the then territorial capital of Tallahassee to the town of St. Marks. Once the agricultural products reached the new port town, they were loaded aboard boats for shipment to New Orleans and/or St. Augustine. There were, however, problems in navigating both the Apalachee Bay and the St. Marks River. In many places both bay and river were shallow, and it was not too uncommon for boats to run aground and/or get mired in the muddy shallows.

In 1828, Florida's territorial Governor William Pope Duval wrote a letter to Joseph M. White, a territorial delegate in which he stressed a great need for a lighthouse at the St. Marks location. On May 23, 1828, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an act which authorized the construction of a lighthouse at St. Marks and appropriated $6,000 for its construction. The appropriation was increased to $14,000, and by mid-1829 a contract

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 22, 2024

6. St. Marks Lighthouse (southeast elevation)

was signed with Winslow Lewis of Boston for the construction of a tower in the St. Marks area for $11,765. The finished product was not accepted by the Collector of Customs for St. Marks, Mr. Jesse H. Williams, because it had been constructed with hollow walls. Williams felt that the tower should be constructed with solid walls and, therefore, refused to accept the work. Calvin Knowlton was brought in to rebuild the tower. He oversaw its completion, and in 1831, Williams, satisfied that the light was built according to the contract, accepted the work. That same year saw the tower's whale-oil lamps lit for the first time by Samuel Crosby, who had been appointed the first Keeper of the St. Marks Lighthouse the previous year.

The lighthouse was automated by the United States Coast Guard in 1960, and in 2000 the Coast Guard spent $150,000 to stabilize the lighthouse. In 2001 the lighthouse's fourth-order Fresnel lens was deactivated and a modern solar-powered beacon was placed outside the lantern room. The historic Fresnel lens remained in place in the tower for over a decade. In October 2013 the Coast Guard transferred ownership of the

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, September 22, 2024

7. St. Marks Lighthouse (west elevation)

Looking east from Lighthouse Road.

lighthouse to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which operates the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. The lighthouse was deactivated in 2016 and the Coast Guard's solar beacon was removed. On October 31, 2019, a replica of the original fourth-order Fresnel lens was lit in the tower. The light is now maintained as a private aid to navigation and is lit seasonally.