Anclote Key Lighthouse, Anclote Key Island Florida

Date added: November 02, 2024

Categories:
Florida
Lighthouse

Partial foundation columns of keepers' quarters (1996)

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The U.S. Lighthouse Board requested $20,000 for a new lighthouse to be completed on the south end of Anclote Key in 1884. Congress appropriated $17,500 on March 3^rd, 1885. The Lighthouse Board wanted to build a tower similar to the Cape San Bias Lighthouse in the Florida Panhandle, an iron skeletal tower built on piles in 1885 and costing $35,000. In order to meet its goal, the Lighthouse Board requested an additional $17,500, which was approved by Congress on August 4^th, 1886.

Proposals for the metalwork were received by the Board on October 4^th, 1886, and a contract was awarded. Delivery of the metal work to the site was required by March 1^st, 1887; however, the metal work was not received until late June 1887. Proposals received for the two keeper's dwellings and outhouses were considered too expensive, so it was decided to build them using hired labor, with construction materials purchased by contract. The lighthouse was completed and first lit on September 15^th, 1887.

In 1888, a broken tension rod in the fifth series was replaced with a new one. Slight repairs were also made to the illuminating apparatus at the lamp shop. An oil house was built in 1894 or shortly thereafter. In 1898, a wharf 209 feet long and 8 feet wide, with a T-head 15 feet long by 6 feet wide, was built on galvanized iron pipe piles. A ladder was placed on the outer end of the T-head. A step was built from the wharf to the T-head and another step from the wharf to a new 425-foot-long brick walk that connected the wharf to the lighthouse. Other walks were also built: a 46-foot long brick walk from the lighthouse to the keeper's dwelling, a 46-foot long brick walk from the lighthouse to the assistant keeper's dwelling, a 33-foot long brick walk from the assistant keeper's dwelling to the keeper's dwelling, a 46-foot long brick walk from the lighthouse to the oil house, and a 90-foot long brick walk from the keeper's dwelling to the outhouse (nonextant). Brick drains were also laid under both keeper's houses. Various minor repairs were completed and all new work was either painted or whitewashed.

In 1899, the "hard-oil finish" on the insides of the keepers' quarters were scraped and two coats of white paint applied. The exteriors of both dwellings were given one coat of white paint. The latticework around the foundation of the dwellings were repaired and painted "lead color." The iron work on the tower was scaled, scraped and painted. The oil house was covered with galvanized iron and the entire structure painted one coat of "mineral brown." To reach deeper water, the wharf was extended another 200 feet by 8 feet, and T-head 20-feet long by 5-feet wide was built on the other end. A ladder was placed on the outer side and steps built to the wharf on the inner side. The inner end of the wharf was also fitted with a 20-foot long by 8-foot wide incline, presumably to facilitate the station boat because a boathouse did not yet exist. The fence around the station was rebuilt of cypress and painted white. It was 5-feet tall and 400-feet long and fitted with four gates. The opening between the kitchen and main dwelling was enclosed, providing an additional room. It is presumed this work was performed on the keeper's dwelling.

In 1902, a 633-foot painted, picket fence with four gates was built around the station property. In 1904, 14 piles were driven under the wharf and three fender piles driven at the outer end of the wharf. Stringers and decking were also repaired. A boathouse was built, and a platform for hauling the station boat was also built. Mosquitoes were a problem on Anclote Key even after Work Progress Act (WPA) crews in the 1930s dug drainage ditches to reduce the insect population.

Originally two families lived on the island to tend the lighthouse. Because the island was so close to the mainland, the keeper or his assistant frequently went by boat to Tarpon Springs. Several times a week a keeper would cross the short stretch of water to attend church or get provisions, pick up mail or visit family. During the Spanish-American War in the late 1890s, keeper Robert E. Meyer procured a small cannon for self-defense, but the island remained free from attack. One keeper kept pigs on the island, letting them wander, which worked fine until a Cuban boat crew came ashore and stole them.

Construction of the lighthouse, however, had an impact on Tarpon Springs beyond the occasional comings and goings of the keepers and their families. After the $35,000 was allocated by Congress and the lighthouse was constructed by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, Tarpon Springs began to build more hotels to accommodate the increased numbers of tourists brought to town by sea. Those additional tourists caused the population of Tarpon to grow from 200 in 1887, the year the city was incorporated, to more than 2,000 by 1920.

The lighthouse also facilitated the growth of the sponging industry, for which Tarpon Springs is still known. While the keepers were busy tending the light and recording the daily happenings on the grounds, a business deal was being forged on land that would lay the foundation for Tarpon Springs' reputation as the United States' sponge capital. Businessman John K. Cheyney and Greek sponge boat captain John Corcoris founded the Tarpon Springs Sponge Exchange, which spelled the end for the sponging industry in Key West. It was no longer necessary for sponges harvested just a few miles off Anclote Key to be hauled to Key West. The lighthouse and the sponge exchange made Tarpon Springs the center of the United States' sponge industry. The light was also useful for cedar shipments from Cedar Key to pencil companies and for fisherman based at Tarpon Springs and Bailey's Bluff in what is now Pasco County.

Today Anclote Key is a sleepy barrier island. But it was once an attraction to scores of dignitaries, tourists, mariners and townsfolk who gathered under the Florida long leaf pine and sable palms for family socials. While the island's beauty was a natural draw, the lighthouse made human life on the island possible. During the early days of the lighthouse, the island was a popular destination for local residents to picnic by day and for romantic sails by moonlight. Important visitors, including Greek premier Venizelos, former President Calvin Coolidge and former Vice President Spiro Agnew, were taken out to the island on sponge boats. Tourists from many states climbed the tower for a view of the island and surrounding water.

In 1939, the U.S. Lighthouse Service merged into the U.S. Coast Guard and for the next 45 years, the Anclote sentinel was tended by that branch of the military. Ultimately, modern navigational aids and the construction of a lighted smokestack at Florida Power's Anclote power plant rendered the lighthouse obsolete. Subsequently, the lighthouse was relinquished in 1985, decommissioned by the Coast Guard and abandoned. It now belongs to the state of Florida.

Site Description

The Anclote Key Lighthouse is a 110-foot abandoned cast iron skeletal sentinel that sits on the southern tip of Anclote Key in the Gulf of Mexico. This is an unincorporated island of Pinellas and Pasco counties, Florida, owned by the state of Florida and operated as a wildlife refuge and recreation area. The property is a rectangle parcel measuring 173 x 125 feet. Other resources within the boundaries include the walls of a brick oil house, 10 partial foundation columns of two keepers' quarters, one concrete cistern and the concrete walkway.

The mouth of the Anclote River offers one of the best natural harbors on the Florida Gulf Coast. It is protected by three small mangrove-covered islands, one of which is Anclote Key. The 188-acre island, home to nesting birds such as brown pelicans, white snowy egrets, terns and great blue herons, is a popular spot for boaters, campers and picnickers. The island's integrity has been preserved, because the island can only be accessed by boat. Florida long leaf pine and sable palms grow abundantly on the island. Besides the lighthouse complex, there are no other structures on the key, which is owned by the state of Florida, and is operated as a wildlife refuge and recreation area. It is overgrown with vegetation and infested with mosquitoes.

Since its abandonment in 1985, the cast-iron lighthouse has fallen into disrepair. Today, all that remains of the complex is the rusted lighthouse, the walls of a brick oil house, 10 partial foundation columns of two keepers' quarters, one concrete cistern and the concrete walkway.

The lighthouse is a cast-iron skeletal tower, surmounted by a parapet and a lantern with exterior decks accessible from below by a central spiral stairway enclosed by a cast-iron cylinder. Upon these cement piers the central tubular stair cylinder and perimeter skeletal supports were attached. Prefabricated in a northern shipyard, the tower was bolted together quickly. Two keeper's quarters were built at this station, one for the keeper and one for the assistant keeper, both nearly identical in plan. Each was a frame clapboard-sided 1-1/4 story structure with a chimney located in the center of a double hipped roof. A louvered stepped rise in the middle of the roof afforded ventilation. The roof had an exaggerated overhang for added protection from the sun. Begun in June 1887, the station was completed and ready for service by September of that year.

The immediate lighthouse site is .166 acres (90 feet by 90 feet) bounded by the remains of an eight-foot high chain-link fence. Only portions of the fence remain; the rest has been torn down by vandals. Outside the fence to the west are the remains of the brick oil house. Only the walls are standing, the roof has collapsed and the remains are located within the walls. A portion of the west gable end wall has collapsed. To the north of the lighthouse are the remains of the brick piers that once supported the wood framed keepers' quarters. Located between the sites for the keepers' quarters are concrete bases that once supported two wood stave cisterns that provided fresh water for the on-site personnel. To the north of these structures are the remains of a third, partially buried concrete cistern.

Within 12 years of the lighthouse being deactivated, both keepers' quarters were burned to the ground by arsonists, the glass lantern panels were shattered by gunfire, and graffiti artists defaced the lighthouse. The untended lighthouse has been further ravaged by the elements; the cast-iron skeleton is badly rusted. The roof of the brick oil house has collapsed and deteriorated, but the four walls remain. A concrete cistern remains intact along with the concrete walkway leading to the light tower. The entire site is overgrown by non-native vegetation, specifically Brazilian pepper plants, whose seeds were deposited on the island by wind and birds.

Lighthouse History

Since humans first took vessels to the sea, they needed devices to guide themselves back home. A bonfire on a hillside was probably the world's first beacon, followed by a light hoisted on a pole or a tripod. Conical structures, that are more like the lighthouses we know today, first appeared in ancient times. When the Pilgrims landed in America, lighthouses were common in Europe but not in the New World. The first lighthouse in America was built in 1716 in Boston Harbor. The federal government established the U.S. Lighthouse Service with the Lighthouse Act of 1789. Since then, more than 1,000 lighthouses have been built along the U.S. coastline, in addition to the installation of hundreds of fog signals and the launching of 200 lightships. In 1939, the Lighthouse Service merged with the U.S. Coast Guard.

For most of the lives of America's lighthouses, people were needed to tend the lights. In most cases, a keeper was required to make the walk to the top of the lighthouse several times a day to ensure that the beacon was fueled adequately. By the time the Coast Guard took over the U.S. Light Service in 1939, the human factor was on its way out. Advances in technology rendered many old sentinels obsolete, and in the 1960s, a program called the Lighthouse Automation and Modernization Project eliminated the need for light keepers.

Until the mid-1800s, most U.S. lighthouses were masonry structures. At that time, the skeletal, tubular, cast-iron plate lighthouse was born. In areas where shifting and eroding beaches were present, such as Anclote Key, the cast-iron plate towers were built so that they could be disassembled and re-erected where needed. An example of this is the Cape San Bias Lighthouse in the Florida Panhandle. Built in 1885, Cape San Bias was deconstructed and moved twice because of shifting sands. Other lighthouses of this type around the state include: >Hillsboro Inlet, Sanibel Island, Boca Grande, Crooked River>, and Cape San Bias. In the Florida Keys, the cast-iron plate lighthouses are anchored to massive iron pilings on the reefs. Another type of lighthouse, though not as common as the masonry and iron structures, is simply a wooden edifice with an illumination device affixed to the top. An example of this type in Florida is the Old Port Boca Grande Light on Gasparilla Island.

Altogether, the federal government built forty-one lighthouses in Florida, the majority were built in the nineteenth century. Of the thirty-four that remain, fourteen were lit between 1800 and 1849, nine between 1850 and 1899, and six between 1900 and 1949. Many of these had to be rebuilt because of storms and shifting sands. Much of the work occurred during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Florida lighthouses were automated in the twentieth century; seven were automated between 1900 and 1949 and eighteen after 1950.

The Fresnel lighting system was invented by French physicist Augustin Fresnel in 1822. The big prismatic glass lenses were designed to snatch every flicker of light from even the smallest lamp and concentrate it into a powerful beam that could be seen from dozens of miles away. Fresnel's elegant lenses did their job so well that they soon became standard equipment in lighthouses throughout the world. It was not until the Nazis destroyed the manufacturing formula during World War II that production was halted. Today the world's existing Fresnel lenses are irreplaceable.

Fresnels come in a variety of sizes, referred to as orders. The huge first-order lenses, such as the one that once served at the Cape Canaveral (Florida) Lighthouse, are six feet in diameter and up to twelve feet tall. The smallest lenses, designated sixth-order, are only about one foot in diameter. The larger and more powerful first-, second-, and third-order Fresnels lenses were intended for use in coastal lighthouses.

Keeper James Gardner lit the Anclote Key light for the first time on September 15^th, 1887. Flashing every 30 seconds, the beacon could be distinguished easily from that of the fixed white light on Egmont Key, 30 miles south at the mouth of Tampa Bay. The third-order Fresnel lens was powered by kerosene from 1887 until the early 1940s when the U.S. Coast Guard took over operation of the lighthouse. In 1898, a fourth-order Fresnel, less powerful than the previous lens, replaced the original light. In the 1960s, the Coast Guard installed a 250-watt electric light powered by 56 batteries attached to an electronic sun sensor. The electric light was removed when the Coast Guard deactivated the lighthouse and abandoned the island in 1985. Vandals later destroyed the Fresnel lens. Today the cost of manufacturing a Fresnel lens would be quite costly, possibly running into millions of dollars. There is currently no optic in the lighthouse.