Fowey Rocks Light Station, Key Biscayne Florida
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Fowey Rocks Light is one of the six famous Florida Reef Lights built as tall skeletal tower lighthouses during the middle to late nineteenth century. They are spread along approximately 190 miles of the Florida Keys, an archipelago of low-lying islands extending in an arc from south of Key Biscayne near the southern Florida peninsula to Key West and the Dry Tortugas beyond. These six lighthouses include one offshore of Dade County (Fowey Rocks Light) and five offshore of Monroe County. From east to west, the five Florida Reef Lights offshore of Monroe County are Carysfort Reef Light, Alligator Reef Light, Sombrero Key Light, American Shoal Light and Sand Key Light.
Fowey Rocks is located beyond the 3-mile limit of Florida state waters, on the western side of the Straits of Florida between Key Biscayne and the north end of Key Largo. From there the Straits extend southwest between the Florida Keys and Cuba, and northward between Florida's east coast and the Bahamas. The Gulf Stream current flows eastward from the Gulf of Mexico through the Florida Straits and into the Atlantic Ocean beyond.
The Florida Straits have been an important corridor for maritime transportation from colonial times to the present. They have also been the scene of many shipwrecks. The reefs and shallows of the Florida Keys and Key Biscayne area have been hazardous to vessels and are made even more dangerous by storms, especially hurricanes. These factors have combined to make southeastern Florida and the Keys, including Fowey Rocks, the scene of thousands of shipwrecks and groundings.
During the early nineteenth century, the United States expanded both westward and southward. Among the new territories added to the nation during this period were the vast Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and Spanish Florida, ceded to the U.S. in 1819. Population expansion and economic development of these areas followed in turn. New Orleans in Louisiana and other Gulf of Mexico ports became important centers for maritime commerce. By the nineteenth century's second quarter, the Florida Straits had become a busy corridor for ships navigating between the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea and ports in the eastern United States and Europe. As the volume of maritime traffic increased, the number and frequency of shipping losses along the Keys and Florida's east coast rose as well. These increases in traffic and losses provided ample justification for the U.S. government to establish Federal aids to navigation in these areas.
The first group of lighthouses constructed in the Florida Keys region consisted of masonry towers built onshore at strategic locations during the middle 1820s. They included Cape Florida Light (1825), Key West Harbor Light (1825), Garden Key Light in the Dry Tortugas (1825), and Sand Key Light near Key West (1826). In addition, a lightship was stationed at Carysfort Reef offshore of Key Largo in 1825.
Until the second half of the nineteenth century, the Federal government's only lighthouse in the Fowey Rocks vicinity was Cape Florida Light located at the south end of Key Biscayne. Originally built as a 65-foot tall masonry tower supporting a lantern, it began operating in 1825. In 1836, during the Seminole Wars, Cape Florida Light was attacked and severely damaged. It was reconstructed in 1846 to 1847. Cape Florida Light was rebuilt in 1855 to 1856 to a height of 95 feet and equipped with a more powerful optic to enhance its effectiveness. During the Civil War, it was raided by Confederates who disabled its optic. In 1866 the lighthouse was repaired and re-lighted.
Around the time of Cape Florida Light's 1840s reconstruction, managers of the Federal lighthouse program determined that the lightship marking Carysfort Reef should be replaced with an onsite lighthouse. The proposed structure was designed as a tall skeletal tower supporting a lantern 100 feet above sea level in order that its optic would be visible to vessels 10 miles away. Congress appropriated funds for this in 1848. The lighthouse was subsequently fabricated in Philadelphia and shipped to the Keys in 1849.
The task of supervising the construction of Carysfort Reef Light was assigned to Captain Howard Stansbury of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. Work proceeded, but the appropriated funding for building the lighthouse was insufficient and became depleted in 1851. While additional funds were being obtained, Captain Stansbury was reassigned to another post. His replacement was Major Thomas P. Linnard who unfortunately died shortly after arriving in the Keys. He was replaced by Lieutenant George G. Meade, who supervised the remaining work at Carysfort Reef Light. Completed in 1852, it was initially equipped with a lamp and reflector array which was standard optical equipment for U.S. lighthouses at the time. Shortly after this, Federal lighthouse managers recognized the superiority of Fresnel lens optics for use as lighthouse beacons, and a policy to replace previously installed, less-effective equipment was adopted. Caryfort Reef Light's original optic was removed and replaced with a first-order Fresnel lens which proved to be far superior to the earlier equipment. Today, Carysfort Reef Light is equipped with a modern automated optic and continues to serve as an active Federal lighthouse.
During his tour of duty in the Florida Keys, Lt. Meade was also in charge of constructing Sand Key Light near Key West. It was designed as a skeletal tower structure with an optic 109 feet above sea level. Sand Key Light was completed in 1853 and equipped with a first-order Fresnel lens as its original beacon. It is presently equipped with a modern automated optic and serves as an active Federal aid to navigation.
Meade completed his service in the Keys by supervising the construction of Sombrero Key Light, another skeletal tower structure. Completed in 1858, it is approximately 150 feet tall and is the tallest lighthouse in the Florida Keys. It remains an active Federal lighthouse today, and is equipped with a modern automated beacon.
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 halted prospects for any further offshore lighthouse construction in the Florida Keys until after the conflict ended in 1865. In 1863, five years after the completion of Sombrero Key Light, Major General George G. Meade was commander of the Union's Army of the Potomac. He is renowned for defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at the Battle of Gettysburg in July of that year.
During the early 1870s, the Federal lighthouse establishment undertook the construction of additional lighthouses along the Florida Reef. The first one built was Alligator Reef Light, a tall skeletal tower lighthouse completed in 1873. The next location selected was Fowey Rocks. It attracted attention because Cape Florida Light had proven to be inadequate for warning mariners of dangerous waters there. The U.S. Lighthouse Board decided that Fowey Rocks would best be marked by an offshore light. In preparation for its construction the State of Florida conveyed to the Federal government, in a deed dated 1st May 1875, any rights it held to the "title and jurisdiction over a site for a lighthouse on Fowey Rocks".
The contract for constructing the lighthouse's foundation and first tier was awarded to Paulding and Kemble of Cold Spring, New York. Onsite work for this began in the latter part of 1875 and was completed the following year. The contract for building the lighthouse superstructure was awarded to Pusey, Jones & Company of Wilmington, Delaware. The construction of Fowey Rocks Light was completed in 1878. It was equipped with a first-order Fresnel lens as its optic and was officially lighted for the first time on 15th June 1878.
The first keeper of Fowey Rocks Light was John W. Frow. He transferred to the new lighthouse from Key Biscayne's Cape Florida Light, which was discontinued. Keeper Frow was assisted by his father, Simeon Frow, and Jefferson B. Browne. Mr. Brown subsequently became a lawyer and in 1916 was elected a judge on the Florida Supreme Court.
During the lighthouse's construction, there were two separate incidents when merchant vessels (the Arakanapka and the Carondelet) ran aground nearby. Following its establishment, the number of shipwrecks in the Fowey Rocks vicinity was reduced though accidental losses continued to occur from time to time. These included the Alicia that ran aground in 1905 while bound for Havana. It was refloated but eventually sank. In 4914, the schooner Alice B. Philips ran aground at Fowey Rocks. Its crew was rescued by workmen who were installing new equipment at the lighthouse. The yacht May Belle ran aground in 1915 and sank soon after the crew was rescued by the lighthouse's keepers.
American Shoal Light was the last of the Florida Reef Lights built. Completed in 1880, it was constructed using the same design as Fowey Rocks Light except for a different lantern. It also was equipped with a first-order Fresnel lens. Several decades later, the U.S. Bureau of Lighthouses decided to build a series of seven unmanned reef lights in the Florida Keys. Constructed between 1921 and 1936, they were intended to mark local hazards and to be operated automatically from the outset. The first two of these lights were built at Molasses Reef and Pacific Reef in 1921. They were designed as a pyramidal skeletal tower having three tiers of horizontal supporting members, topped with a lantern equipped with an automated optic. Another pyramidal skeletal tower automated light was built at Hen and Chicken Shoals in 1929. It was constructed as a modification of the 1921 version. A different skeletal tower design was developed for other offshore automated lights built in the Keys during the 1930s. This was used for the construction of Smith Shoal Light (1933), Tennessee Reef Light (1933), Cosgrove Shoal Light (1935), and Pulaski Shoal Light (1936). Tennessee Reef Light is the only one of the seven early twentieth-century unmanned Florida Keys reef lights that still has its original lantern. Two in this group (Smith Shoal Light and Pulaski Shoal Light) have been demolished.
Keepers working for the U.S. Lighthouse Service manned Fowey Rocks Light until 1939 when the Bureau of Lighthouses merged with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). Following that, USCG personnel took over these duties until 1974 when Fowey Rocks Light became the last of the great Florida Reef Lights to be automated. Long before then, it had come to be nicknamed "The Eye of Miami".
Today, Fowey Rocks Light continues to fulfill its original role of providing a navigational guide for mariners traversing a potentially hazardous area. It is widely recognized as a prominent landmark in Dade County and serves as a marker for vessels approaching the port of Miami. This lighthouse property is a lasting reminder of the Florida Straits' important historical role as a route for commercial shipping and evokes feelings that recall the area's eventful maritime history. It also stands as a reminder of the dedication to duty characteristic of lighthouse keepers in American history.
The technology of lighthouse engineering prior to the 1830s had not developed sufficiently to provide an effective technology for constructing offshore lighthouses where submerged land included sand or silt sediments, or coral reef. This changed in 1833 when Alexander Mitchell of England received a patent for a lighthouse built on wrought iron foundation pilings with screw tips. This new piling technology provided a means to drive piles into unconsolidated substrates in a manner that provided a stable foundation for offshore lighthouses in a variety of submerged soil conditions. In 1838, Mitchell and his son directed the construction of the world's first screw pile foundation lighthouse at Maplin Sand in the Thames River estuary near London. Completed in 1841, the Maplin Sand Lighthouse proved to be successful and led to the adoption of its construction method for lighthouses in the United States. Work on the Federal government's first screw pile lighthouse began in 1848 at Brandywine Shoal in Delaware Bay. When completed in 1850, its foundation supported a platform upon which were erected a conical light tower, fog bell structure, and other light station features.
Another lighthouse project undertaken by the Federal government in the late 1840s was replacing the lightship marking Carysfort Reef offshore of Key Largo in Florida with a permanent structure. A design prepared by lighthouse engineer I. W. P. Lewis was selected. It included a screw pile foundation supporting a skeletal tower. Lewis believed that a screw pile foundation was the best solution for overcoming problems relating to constructing an offshore lighthouse where the bottom substrate included coral rock and sand.
The construction of Carysfort Reef Light began in 1848 after Congress appropriated funds. The lighthouse was fabricated in Philadelphia and shipped to the Florida Keys. The task of supervising this project was assigned to Captain Howard Stansbury, U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers. After onsite work began in 1849, Stansbury observed that screw piles driven into the soft coral rock on Carysfort Reef would not provide a foundation of sufficient strength to support a tall structure. To overcome this, he designed a circular plate with a hole in the center through which a foundation pile could be driven until being tightly seated using a collar. The use of a foot plate with a metal pile is the key concept of a disk pile foundation. It provides a significantly larger load-bearing surface and better support for the superstructure.
The disk pile foundation that Stansbury developed for Carysfort Reef Light was successful and was employed in building the five later Florida Reef Lights (Sand Key Light and Sombrero Key Light in the 1850s, and Alligator Reef Light, Fowey Rocks Light, and American Shoal Light in the 1870s to 1880). All six of these lighthouses include an iron disk pile foundation, pyramidal skeletal tower, keepers dwelling, and a lantern 100 feet or more above sea level.
After the decision was made in the early 1870s to construct a lighthouse on Fowey Rocks, a design was prepared that included a disk pile foundation and skeletal tower superstructure similar to the four Florida Reef lights built earlier. The plans incorporated several differences including a shorter skeletal tower with a wider base than earlier reef lights, and five horizontal structural tiers above the foundation. Another difference was that the keepers dwelling was to be octagonal, two stories tall, and include a mansard roof following the Second Empire architectural style popular at that time. In addition, a service room was added below the watch room and the lantern included a Second Empire style bell-shaped roof.
The contract to manufacture Fowey Rocks Light's disk pile foundation and first horizontal tier was awarded in 1875 to Paulding & Kemble of Cold Spring, New York. This company had previously been contracted in 1873 to manufacture Alligator Reef Light's disk pile foundation and first tier. The onsite installation of the lighthouse foundation at Fowey Rocks began in 1875. By summer 1876, the work had progressed to completion of the first tier.
Meanwhile, the lighthouse's future lantern and first order Fresnel lens optic were assembled and exhibited by the U.S. Lighthouse Board at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. This provided the American public with a view of state-of-the-art technology used for the nation's lighthouse beacons. The first order Fresnel lens designated for Fowey Rocks Light was manufactured in France by Henry-Lepaute of Paris. With its glass lens mounted atop the optic's pedestal and rotation machinery, this remarkable example of late nineteenth century technology stood approximately 14 feet tall.
Further construction at Fowey Rocks was delayed until a contract for the superstructure was awarded. The winning contractor was Pusey, Jones & Company of Wilmington, Delaware. Onsite work was resumed in autumn 1876. Subsequent frequent episodes of inclement weather caused several delays. The construction work achieved an important milestone in April 1878 when the two-story keeper dwelling was completed. The skeletal tower and stair cylinder were finished soon after, and the lantern and first-order Fresnel lens were installed in May 1878. After final work was completed, the lighthouse began officially operating when its optic was lighted on 15 June 1878.
The Lighthouse Board took great pride in Fowey Rocks Light. It chose to exhibit a ¾-inch to one-foot scale model of the lighthouse at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Later events concerning Fowey Rocks Light included installation of new oil tanks and an incandescent oil vapor (IOV) lamp in 1914. Damage from the great hurricane of 1935 included the loss of the wood decking on the tower's first tier, which is 15 feet above sea level. A radio beacon was installed at Fowey Rocks Light in 1943. It included a transmission tower built atop the lighthouse's lantern. This radio beacon was relocated to the mainland in 1972. The transmission tower remained atop the lantern until 1996 when it was removed during renovations to the lighthouse structure.
Site Description
Fowey Rocks Light was established as a Federal aid to navigation in 1878 to mark a hazardous reef 6.3 miles south-southeast of Cape Florida on Key Biscayne in Dade County, Florida. It is located more than three nautical miles from land and is outside Florida state waters. It is owned by the U.S. Coast Guard. The octagonal, pyramidal skeletal tower lighthouse is approximately 130 feet tall and stands in approximately 10 feet of water. The lighthouse's skeletal tower is supported by pilings and is painted brown. It supports a keeper's dwelling and stair cylinder that are painted white. The superstructure component atop the skeletal tower and stair cylinder includes a service room, watch room, and lantern. These are painted black. Fowey Rocks Light is operated as an automated beacon identified as number 920 on the regional light list. It is equipped with a modern optic that signals a flashing white light visible for 15 miles in clear weather, and a RACON radar beacon. The optic also displays two red sectors that mark areas of hazardous water to the north and south. The property also includes a boat dock and walkway built in 1996. It provides a mooring for vessels and platform for transferring personnel, supplies, and equipment. The dock's walkway connects with the lighthouse. Fowey Rocks Light is accessible by boat. It is not open to public visitation.
This lighthouse marks Fowey Rocks, an offshore coral reef. Fowey Rocks is on the western side of the Straits of Florida north of Key Largo. It is named for the HMS Fowey, a British warship that wrecked nearby in 1748. This location lies near an important shipping lane for vessels navigating between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Fowey Rocks Light is a Federal lighthouse owned by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The lighthouse at Fowey Rocks is approximately 130 feet tall and was established as a Federal aid to navigation in 1878. It is presently equipped with a modern automated signal light and a RACON radar beacon. The lighthouse structure includes an iron disk pile foundation and an iron octagonal pyramidal skeletal tower that has five horizontal tiers. The tower supports a keeper's dwelling, stair cylinder, service room, watch room and lantern. The lighthouse's day mark coloration includes a brown skeletal tower, black lantern, white stair cylinder, and a white keeper's dwelling.
The lighthouse's foundation is 56 feet in diameter and includes a set of nine iron disk piles. Eight pilings are arranged in an octagonal configuration with the ninth positioned in the center. Each disk pile includes a 12-inch diameter wrought iron piling and a 7-foot diameter cast iron disk. The pilings are solid metal and 28 feet long with a pointed tip. They include a shoulder 11 feet, 4 inches from the tip that increases the piling's diameter. Each disk includes a 12-inch diameter center hole surrounded by a 2-foot tall collar. The collar is reinforced by radial ribs extending to the disk's perimeter, ending at a 6-inch tall rim. Each disk is positioned horizontally on a leveled area of the coral rock sea floor. The process to set a disk pile in its place used a pile-driver to pound a piling through the disk's center hole and into the coral rock substrate until the piling was approximately 10 feet deep and the piling's shoulder rested against the disk's collar. This served to disperse the piling's structural load over a wider area and provided for greater stability. An account of Fowey Rocks Light's construction describes how its foundation was built:
After the nine foundation piles were set into position, their tops were cut level with one another and capped with sockets. These sockets provide connection points for horizontal beams, vertical columns, and tension rods (cross-tie rods with turnbuckles). The tension rods are oriented diagonally, vertically, and horizontally. They provide tension that pulls components of the foundation and the skeletal tower's column and beam framework together vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. The foundation's pilings are connected with one another using horizontal beams extending to sockets at the top of neighboring pilings. They are also tied to sockets on neighboring pilings by tension rods. The socket atop the foundation's center piling includes 16 connection points. These provide joints for a vertical column, horizontal beams extending to the peripheral pilings, and tension rods extending upward and downward in a radial fashion to peripheral foundation pilings and columns and beams of the tower superstructure.
The lighthouse's skeletal tower is octagonal in plan and pyramidal in elevation. It is built with a series of five structural tiers consisting of horizontal beams extending between the tower's peripheral columns. The first (lowest) tier includes the top of the foundation's nine vertical pilings and horizontal beams connecting them. At this tier, each perimeter piling supports a peripheral column that inclines inward towards the center in a pyramidal fashion at approximately a 60-degree angle.
The skeletal tower's eight peripheral columns are made with a series of column segments and iron sockets at each segment's upper and lower end. These sockets provide connection points for successive column segments as well as each tier's beams and tension rods. The inclined peripheral columns become narrower in diameter at higher tiers. The first tier's foundation pilings are 12 inches in diameter. The column segments rising to the second and third tiers are 10 inches in diameter. The column segments rising from the third to the fourth tier are 9 inches in diameter, while the segments extending from there to the fifth tier have a diameter of 8 inches.
The tower's second tier includes an octagonal platform approximately 50 feet wide made with iron plates. This platform is supported by horizontal iron beams connecting with the second tier sockets atop the peripheral and central columns. The lighthouse's two-story octagonal keepers dwelling sits atop this second tier platform. Tension rods of the tower's third tier extend through the dwelling's walls and connect with the lower part of the lighthouse's stair cylinder, which is enclosed by the dwelling. The dwelling's roof is nearly level with the skeletal tower's third tier. The skeletal tower's third, fourth and fifth tiers include horizontal beams that extend between the peripheral columns and bands of sockets surrounding the stair cylinder. The fifth tier's horizontal beams support the service room, which is centered atop the stair cylinder.
The tower's second tier platform is octagonal and made with iron plates cast with a diamond pattern for traction. Its south-southeast (SSE) and north-northwest (NNW) sides each include an original opening in the deck for a stairway that descended to a platform at the skeletal tower's first tier. The stairways and first tier platforms are no longer extant. The second tier stairway openings are now covered with steel plates. The second tier platform's SSE and NNW sides also include projecting 3-foot wide rectangular decks that formerly supported boat davits and lifting cranes that are no longer present. A deteriorated wrought iron guardrail encloses the second tier platform's perimeter. Its stanchions pierce the platform's supporting beams and are attached at the bottom to a decorative bracket beneath each beam. The guardrail section on the platform's SSE side has been removed where a non-original boom constructed of steel girders extends out over the water. In place of the missing railing, a chain is suspended between stanchions on either side.
The lighthouse keepers dwelling sits centered atop the second tier platform. It is octagonal in plan, two stories tall, and approximately 40 feet in diameter. The dwelling is painted white. Its design follows the Second Empire architectural style popular in the 1870s and includes a mansard roof.
The second story mansard roof is octagonal and made with ribbed iron plates. Each of the roof's eight vertical sides (facets) has a single window dormer that includes a surround with a cast iron hood and molding with decorative medallions at the corners. The second story windows are fitted with two-over-two double-hung sash with glass glazing. Several windows are covered on the outside with steel plates. The mansard roof includes decorative cast iron cornices extending along each roof facet at the slope transition above the second story windows, as well as along the roof eaves below them. The eave cornice includes a built-in rain gutter system.
The dwelling's first story exterior wall includes eight sides (facets). These are clad with iron plates.
The west-northwest (WNW) and east-southeast (ESE) facets include doorways flanked by a window on the right and a window on the left. The doorways both have the year "1876" cast into an iron wall plate directly above them. The ESE doorway's exterior is covered with steel plates. The WNW doorway is fitted with a steel door providing access to the interior. The other six first story facets are pierced with a single window each. All first story windows are wood-framed and fitted with six-over-six double-hung sash. Every first story window is covered on the outside with a steel plate. The ESE doorway's left side window is covered with a steel plate that is pierced by two ventilation pipes. These provide air and an exhaust outlet for a diesel generator inside.
The first story interior is divided by wooden partition walls into four rooms and includes a wooden circular partition wall at its center surrounding the lower part of the lighthouse's stair cylinder. The walls dividing the four rooms extend north-south and east-west from the stair cylinder. Each room's outer wall includes two facets of the dwelling's octagonal facade. A 7.5-inch-tall wooden baseboard runs along the bottom of each wall. Crown molding extends along the joints where the walls meet the ceiling. Each room's ceiling is made with tongue and groove wooden boards. The floors are covered with linoleum tile. The rooms connect with one another by way of partition wall doorways situated near the outer wall. The doors have been removed. An angled corner closet is built into the farthest clockwise corner of each first story room between an exterior window and the doorway leading to the adjacent room. The first story's northwest (NW) and southeast (SE) rooms include an outer facet pierced by an exterior doorway flanked by a window on both sides and an outer facet pierced by a window. Both doorways are fitted with steel doors; only the WNW doorway is operable. The first story's northeast (NE) and southwest (SW) rooms have two windows each.
The NE room includes a wooden shelf in the northern corner between the doorway and a window. There are cabinets and a kitchen counter with a sink next to the outer wall between the room's two windows. A modern fluorescent light is attached to the middle of the ceiling and electrical conduit is attached to the walls. The SE room contains a diesel engine. It is mounted in the center of the room atop a steel plate supported by steel girders. Fuel supply piping pierces the floor. Conduit for the engine's air and exhaust pierce a window next to the room's non-operable exterior doorway. The walls of this room are clad with paneled fireproof material. Electrical conduit extends along the walls and ceiling. A rack with four fuel tanks is attached to the SE room's eastern partition wall. The first story entry to the lighthouse's central stair cylinder is located in the NW room directly opposite the WNW entrance doorway. The cylinder's spiral stairway provides access to the dwelling's second-story northwest and southwest rooms.
There are four second-story rooms. Each has linoleum tile flooring, 29-inch tall vertical board wainscoting with chair rail molding below plaster walls, and tongue and groove board ceilings. A 7.5-inch tall wooden baseboard extends along the outer and partition walls. Each room's outer wall slants inward toward the ceiling, conforming to the angle of the mansard roof. The northwest, northeast, and southeast rooms are interconnected with doorways that pierce the northern and eastern partition walls near the stair cylinder. The outer upper corner of these two doorways is clipped where a tension rod extends from the skeletal tower to the stair cylinder. Additional vertical tension rods are located adjacent to the stair cylinder in each room. The second story's southwest room is accessible by way of its stair cylinder doorway, only.
The second story's NW, NE and SE rooms each have a closet in the clockwise corner between the window and adjacent partition wall, similar to the first story. The northeast room includes a bathroom built into the eastern corner. It is made with a partition that extends from the outer wall between the two windows. This connects with a second partition extending from the eastern interior wall. The second partition includes a doorway fitted with a wooden door. The bathroom contains a pedestal sink, toilet, and shower stall. The second story's southwest room includes a large L-shaped closet that fills the room's eastern half. This closet extends north-south along the southern partition wall, and east-west near the room's outer wall. A doorway pierces the closet's north-south wall. A horizontal window opening with no glass pierces the closet's east-west wall. Various irregular-shaped openings have been cut into both closet walls.
The lighthouse's vertical stair cylinder is 50.5 feet tall and seven feet in diameter. It is made of curved cast iron plates that are 0.25-inch thick. The cylinder contains a cast iron spiral stairway with a central column that leads up from the dwelling's first story to the service room atop the skeletal tower. The stairway's iron treads are cast with a diamond pattern. There are four landings made with cast iron plates. An iron handrail is bolted to brackets on the cylinder's interior wall. The handrail ends at each landing and resumes where the stairway continues. The stair cylinder's lower entrance is inside the dwelling's first story and faces west-northwest. It has a wood-framed doorway 6 feet, 8 inches tall by 2 feet, 9 inches wide fitted with a wooden door. This door has two-over-two lights above three panels arranged vertically. The stairway ascends to its first landing where there are two wood-framed doorways providing access to the dwelling's second story northwest and southwest rooms. Both doorways are fitted with a wooden door having two-over-two-over-two lights above two side-by-side panels.
Higher up, the stair cylinder is pierced with three window openings that are 5 feet, 4 inches tall by 2 feet, 6 inches wide with a cast iron sill and surround. These windows are covered by steel plates; no sash remains. The lowest window opening is at the stairway's second landing, a short distance above the dwelling's roof. It faces west. The second window opening is located at the stairway's third landing and faces north. The third window opening is at the fourth landing and faces east.
The lighthouse superstructure's service room, watch room, and lantern sit atop the skeletal tower and stair cylinder. The lower component is the service room which is octagonal, 16 feet in diameter and approximately eight feet tall. It is constructed of iron plates. The service room is accessed by way of a semi-circular opening centered in its floor at the top of the stair cylinder's spiral stairway. A wrought iron guardrail extends around this opening. Each of the service room's eight sides is pierced by a window fitted with double-hung sash in an iron frame. These windows are made with a two-light, fixed upper part and a four-light, movable lower part. All eight windows are covered on the exterior with steel plates. The service room ceiling is octagonal and made of iron plates. It is supported by two parallel iron beams extending across the room's center, crossed by a single perpendicular beam. These beams are supported by a circular perimeter girder that sits atop eight iron columns, one each at the room's eight wall corners. A steep, curving iron stairway with a wrought iron handrail leads up from the service room to an opening in the ceiling. This provides access to the watch room, above.
The service room's ceiling forms an octagonal platform that supports the watch room, which is circular, 14 feet, 6 inches in diameter, and made of iron plates. The watch room includes a large circular overhead opening to the lantern room, instead of a ceiling. This opening was necessary to accommodate the lighthouse's original first-order Fresnel lens with pedestal and rotation mechanism; an assembly approximately 14 feet tall altogether. The overhead opening is surrounded by the lantern room's two-foot-wide circular catwalk. This catwalk is constructed of 14 sectional plates supported by decorative iron brackets. Each plate includes a circular floor light made with small hexagonal openings grouped in a honeycomb pattern. A steep, curving stairway rises from the watch room floor to the lantern room catwalk. It is similar to the stairway providing access to the watch room from the service room. A curving partition wall next to the lantern room stairway encloses a small closet. Another partition beneath the lantern room stairway encloses the stairwell leading up from the service room and includes a foyer with doorways to the watch room interior and the exterior open-air gallery. These partition walls are curved to conform to the watch room's circular configuration. The cast iron pedestal for the lighthouse's original first-order Fresnel lens sits centered on the watch room floor. It includes a column decorated with bands of molding that supports a broad circular platform with radial ribs on the underside.
The watch room gallery is octagonal and four feet wide. Its cast iron deck has a diamond pattern. A deteriorated wrought iron guardrail made with eight straight segments surrounds the gallery's perimeter. It is supported by stanchions attached to brackets underneath the deck. An iron ladder rises from the deck to the gallery surrounding the lantern, above. A solar panel array is attached to the watch room gallery's southern side. It is used to recharge batteries that power the lighthouse's electrical equipment. A RACON radar beacon is attached to the gallery's eastern side. Its identification signal is the letter "O" in Morse code. A National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) automated C-MAN weather station antenna is bolted to the gallery deck's northern side. It transmits air temperature, wind speed and barometric pressure data.
The lighthouse's lantern sits atop the watch room. It is circular, 11.5 feet in diameter, and approximately 12 feet tall. The lantern's exterior includes glazing approximately six feet tall extending from its base at the lantern room catwalk to the dome roof overhead. This glazing consists of 48 two-foot by two-foot glass panes held by astragals, arranged in three tiers of 16 panes each. Two red lexan panels of floor-to-ceiling height are held by aluminum frames mounted on the north and south interior sides of the lantern's glazing. These give a red color to the lighthouse's light beacon when viewed from those directions, indicating hazardous areas. The lantern's dome roof springs from a soffit above the glazing. It is made of cast iron plates that rise steeply to form a bell-like shape. The roof plates meet at an apex topped with a vent ball and lightning rod. The lantern is surrounded by an outdoor gallery two feet wide. It is accessed by way of the iron ladder that rises from the watch room gallery. A non-original, simple steel handrail supported by steel rod stanchions surrounds the gallery's perimeter. It is painted white. The wide opening in the lantern room floor is occupied by the circular pedestal that formerly supported the lighthouse's original first order Fresnel lens. Three metal columns 27 inches tall are affixed to the pedestal's center. They formerly supported an incandescent oil vapor (IOV) lamp installed in 1914 to light the Fresnel lens (USCG 1914).
A modern pedestal made with metal pipe is affixed atop the IOV lamp pedestal. This supports the lighthouse's existing optic, a modern automated VRB-25 marine beacon installed in 1997. The VRB-25 signals a white flash every 10 seconds and is visible to the north and south for 15 miles in clear weather. The red lexan panels inside the lantern change the beacon's color to a flashing red light visible towards the north and south for 10 miles in clear weather. The northern red sector covers an arc from 359 to 20 degrees magnetic. The southern red sector covers an arc from 180 to 188 degrees magnetic. They mark areas containing hazardous reefs and shallow water.
The rectangular boat dock is approximately 30 feet long by 30 feet wide. It stands approximately 30 feet southwest of the lighthouse and is supported by steel pilings. The dock's flat deck is approximately 15 feet above water level. Another feature of this resource is a steel walkway approximately 30 feet long extending from the dock to the skeletal tower's first tier. This walkway has wooden floorboards and guardrails on each side. A steel ladder with a vertical circular safety cage rises from the walkway's lighthouse end to a trapdoor that pierces the tower's second-tier platform next to the keeper's dwelling. This boat dock, walkway, and ladder were constructed in 1996 to provide for vessel mooring and a landing place for transferring personnel, equipment, and supplies.
Changes in Physical Appearance and Overall Integrity
Fowey Rocks Light remains largely unaltered from when its construction was completed in 1878. Its foundation, skeletal tower and superstructure components are virtually the same as when they were built. The changes that have occurred relate generally to routine maintenance, replacing and upgrading equipment, and measures for securing the property that began in 1974 when the lighthouse was automated and its resident keepers departed.
The property's changes in physical appearance include modifications affecting access to the lighthouse. The structure's original configuration included two iron stairways that led up to the keeper's dwelling platform from two landing platforms supported by the skeletal tower's first tier. Iron ladders descended from these landings to water level. One stairway and landing were on the lighthouse's northern side. The other set was on the southern side. The keeper dwelling platform includes rectangular projections on the north and south sides where boat davits were originally installed directly above the first-tier landings. In 1927 a large section of wooden decking was installed atop the skeletal tower's first tier. This decking was washed away during the great hurricane of 1935 and subsequently rebuilt. The first tier's wood decking was removed in 1991.
The two iron exterior stairways and boat davits were removed circa the late 1970s in conjunction with the lighthouse's automation.
Another change from the lighthouse's original configuration was tanks for water storage were installed circa the end of the nineteenth century. These tanks were suspended beneath the keeper's dwelling. In 1898, a lamp oil storage unit suspended below the dwelling platform was added as well. These features were removed after the lighthouse was automated in 1974. Maintenance work on the property included repairs in 1949 to stabilize one of the skeletal tower's foundation disks. A modern rain gutter system with downspouts was installed on the keeper dwelling exterior in 1991. This replaced the original gutter system that drained rain water through the dwelling's interior walls and into a cistern storage tank.
Changes to the keeper's dwelling include replacing its original wooden doors with steel ones. Measures to secure the property include installing steel plates to cover the first-story windows, several second-story windows, and one entrance door. The dwelling's interior retains much of its original wall finishes. The original wood flooring was covered with linoleum tiles during the twentieth century. The first story's SE room has been modified by installing an equipment platform that supports a diesel generator, and covering the room's walls with fire-resistant materials. Two second-story rooms have been modified to include a bathroom and modern kitchen cabinets, counter top and sink.
The lighthouse's lantern retains its original character except for changes in equipment. Its original first-order Fresnel lens was automated in 1974 by the installation of a battery-powered automatic lamp changer. A windmill generator for charging the beacon's lamp batteries was installed in 1975 for testing as an alternative power source. It proved to be unreliable and was replaced in 1982 with a battery-powered flash tube array optic. Its batteries were charged using a solar array installed at that time on the watch room gallery. The flash tube array optic made the lighthouse's first-order Fresnel lens unnecessary and it was removed. The Fowey Rocks Light first order Fresnel lens is presently on display in the Aids to Navigation Classroom Building at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in Yorktown, Virginia. The flash tube array optic was found to be unreliable and was replaced in 1983 with a 300-millimeter acrylic optic. The 300-mm signal light did not produce the desired range for the lighthouse's beacon, and it was replaced with a rotating 190-millimeter acrylic optic. The 190-mm optic was removed in 1997 when the existing VRB-25 automated marine beacon was installed.
Navigation equipment changes included the installation of a radio beacon in 1943. The radio beacon's electronics were set up inside the keepers dwelling and its transmission tower was mounted atop the lighthouse's lantern. This radio beacon was eventually replaced by a RACON radar beacon mounted on the watch room gallery. The radio beacon transmission tower was removed from atop the lantern in 1996. During the same year, the lantern gallery's original iron handrail was replaced with a steel handrail. Other work during the 1990s included installing an aluminum radio mast on the watch room gallery for a NOAA C-MAN automated weather station. The lighthouse's coloration was altered slightly in 1991 by painting the lantern and its roof black rather than brown. However, this minor change did not significantly alter the appearance of the lighthouse's distinctive day mark.