Grays Reef Light Station, Bliss Township Michigan

Date added: August 08, 2024

Categories:
Michigan
Lighthouse

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Grays Reef Light Station was part of the Federal government's construction program during the 1920s and 1930s to construct permanent offshore light stations to replace light vessels at hazardous locations in the Straits of Mackinac area. This lighthouse marks Grays Reef, a dangerous area of rocky shallows adjacent to a heavily traveled shipping channel. Grays Reef Light Station was constructed from 1934 to 1936 and is one of the last offshore light stations built in Lake Michigan. It was engineered to withstand the harsh environmental conditions characteristic of its exposed open-water location.

The light station was manned from 1936 to 1976 when it was automated. It remains in service as an automated aid to navigation and landmark. This lighthouse warns mariners of the dangers of Grays Reef and marks a bend in the Grays Reef Passage shipping channel where vessels must change course.

Grays Reef Light Station came into existence because of the need for an effective, permanent aid to navigation at its location. This grew out of relationships between natural environmental conditions in the locality and the historical development of maritime commerce in the Great Lakes region.

The lighthouse is located on Grays Reef, an extensive area of rock outcrops about two square miles in area situated far from shore along a heavily traveled shipping route. Most commercial ships navigating the lake pass through this vicinity. Water depths on the reef range from about 16 to 20 feet deep. There is a similar reef area named East Shoal about 0.6 mile to the east. Between Grays Reef and East Shoal there is a natural channel of deeper water named Grays Reef Passage. About two miles long, this channel is a choke point. It is the most direct route for commercial vessels navigating between ports along central and southern Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes, and has been heavily used since the nineteenth century. Grays Reef Passage provides a safe route through the area, but is nonetheless a place of potential danger during periods of limited visibility or bad weather such as at night and during fog.

The importance of Grays Reef Passage to commercial shipping grew from the tremendous expansion of maritime commerce in the Great Lakes during the nineteenth century. That process had its origin in the 1783 establishment of United States sovereignty over a region that includes present-day Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The 1783 Treaty of Paris that formally ended the American Revolutionary War delineated the border between Canada and the northwestern part of the United States. The territory under U.S. governance was of great size and rich in natural resources. It also was characterized by a network of lakes and other waterways that provided interconnected natural routes of waterborne communication across a vast area. From the late 1780s through the 1810s the Federal government gradually expanded its control over the region. This process was marked by recurring armed conflict with indigenous American Indian groups, as well as the recurrence of war with Britain from 1812 to 1815.

The period of widespread unrest and conflict came to a conclusion in the late 1810s. The 1820s was characterized by a substantial expansion of settlement in the region. This process was spurred by the easy availability of developable land and the abundance of natural resources. The sustained period of growth and development that began during the 1820s continued through the remainder of the nineteenth century.

The Great Lakes region's potential for settlement expansion and economic development attracted great numbers of people from the eastern United States as well as immigrants from Europe. This was facilitated by improvements in communication and transport. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 opened a route for waterborne transport between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. This was followed by other canals that provided connections with the St. Lawrence River and the Ohio River-Mississippi River drainage. These new transportation corridors promoted the movement of people and goods between population centers in the eastern U.S. and ports along the Great Lakes.

The amount of shipping traffic on the Great Lakes expanded substantially from the 1820s through the remainder of the nineteenth century. The establishment of waterfront settlements along the Great Lakes spurred expansion in population and economic activity. The importance of commercial shipping grew in tandem with this. The movement of commercial goods and passengers by water became one of the most important industries in the region's transportation sector.

As new shipping ports and routes were established, awareness grew concerning the need for a regional system of aids to navigation to promote maritime safety. Local interests made efforts to promote this at various locations, but their resources were limited. The Federal government's jurisdiction and responsibility for navigation improvements and maritime safety led to its undertaking major efforts to make improvements in those areas. Programs were developed to construct and maintain harbor and shipping channel improvements, to operate a system of navigational aids, and to establish stations with personnel and equipment for saving lives from vessels in peril.

The Federal government began to construct lighted navigational aids in the Lake Michigan area during the 1830s. In 1832 lighthouses were established at St. Joseph, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois. During the same year, the first Federally-funded light vessel (LV) on Lake Michigan was positioned near Waugoshance Island. It was stationed to warn mariners of an extensive area with several reefs and hazardous shallows along the principal shipping route between Lake Michigan ports and the other Great Lakes. This dangerous zone included Grays Reef, situated about 3.5 miles southwest of the light vessel's position.

The light vessel off Waugoshance Island was replaced by a permanent lighthouse structure in 1851. Waugoshance Light Station was the first offshore timber crib foundation lighthouse built in the Great Lakes. It remained in operation until 1912 when it was disestablished after a new lighthouse on nearby White Shoal made it unnecessary.

While the lighthouse on Waugoshance Reef was an important improvement to maritime safety in the vicinity, it was not an effective navigational marker for Grays Reef and Grays Reef Passage. As a consequence, the U.S. Lighthouse Board decided in the late 1880s to place a light vessel at Grays Reef.

A Congressional appropriation in 1889 provided funding for three Great Lakes light vessels. They were built by the Blythe Craig Shipbuilding Company of Toledo, Ohio. These vessels were 103 feet long with wooden hulls and powered by a small steam engine with a single propeller. Upon delivery to the Detroit lighthouse depot in September 1891, they were designated LV 55, LV 56, and LV 57. In October 1891, LV 57 arrived at its assigned station on Grays Reef where it remained until the end of the year's shipping season. After departing its station, the vessel spent the winter in port at Cheboygan, Michigan. LV 57 served as the light vessel at Grays Reef every shipping season from 1891 to 1923.

During this period, the Lighthouse Board continued to be responsible for lighted aids to navigation in the United States until 1910. It was dissolved in that year when the U.S. Bureau of Lighthouses was established. The Bureau was also known as the U.S. Lighthouse Service. In 1939 the Lighthouse Service became part of the United States Coast Guard.

After LV 57 arrived at Cheboygan to spend the winter of 1923, its hull was found to be rotted beyond repair. Consequently, a replacement light vessel was assigned to Grays Reef in the spring of 1924. It was LV 103, which had been built in 1921 by the Consolidated Shipbuilding Corporation of Morris Heights, New York. LV 103 was designated a relief light vessel and was assigned wherever it was needed throughout Lake Michigan. It remained on station at Grays Reef during the shipping seasons of 1924, 1925, and 1926.

At the beginning of the 1927 shipping season, LV 56 was assigned to replace LV 103. It had been built in 1891 and was a sister ship of the station's original light vessel. LV 56 had marked White Shoal in Lake Michigan from 1891 to 1908 and was stationed at North Manitou Shoal from 1909 to 1926.

LV 56 remained at Grays Reef for just two shipping seasons, 1927 and 1928. After arriving at Cheboygan for its winter layover in late 1928, the vessel was found to have severe hull deterioration. It was taken out of service. In the spring of 1929, LV 103 was again assigned to the station.

In the fall of 1929, LV 99 arrived to replace LV 103 as the light vessel at Grays Reef. It was a 92-foot long, steel hull vessel that had been built in 1920 by the Rice Brothers Shipyard at Boothbay Harbor, Maine. LV 99 was equipped with a single acetylene-fueled light, a 10-inch steam fog whistle, and a signal bell.

Several years before LV 99 arrived at Grays Reef, the Lighthouse Service had begun a major effort to replace light vessels in the Straits of Mackinac area with permanent light stations. One early accomplishment was the construction of a lighthouse on White Shoal, completed in 1910. This replaced the light vessel that had formerly marked the location. Crib foundation offshore light stations were built in the Straits area during the 1920s at Poe Reef, Martin Reef, and Lansing Shoal. These were followed in 1931 by the lighthouse on Fourteen Foot Shoal. As each was completed, the light vessel at that station was reassigned.

In the early 1930s the Lighthouse Service consulted with the Lake Carriers Association and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers concerning the optimal location for a permanent lighthouse on Grays Reef. This led to the decision to position it where the Grays Reef Passage channel made an elbow bend. Vessels transiting the passage needed to change direction at that point, and the lighthouse would serve as a landmark for the necessary course correction. The proposed location was nearby the place where the light vessel was positioned.

In February 1934, Congress appropriated funds for constructing a light station at Grays Reef. The structure was designed by the Office of the Lighthouse Superintendent, Twelfth District, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The plans for its crib foundation were approved in February 1934, and plans for the structure's various other parts were approved during March through May 1934. The design for the Grays Reef Light Station was also used for another proposed lighthouse in northern Lake Michigan. This was the Minneapolis Shoal Light Station, constructed from 1934 to 1935.

The construction contract for Grays Reef Light Station was awarded to the Greiling Brothers Company of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The firm decided to establish an onshore base for the project at Saint Ignace, Michigan. Work began in the summer of 1934.

The plans called for assembling a 65-foot square crib using 12-inch by 12-inch timbers for its wooden framework. The crib contained 50 rectangular chambers where ballast could be deposited to anchor it in place. The crib was built onshore at Saint Ignace, eased into the water when completed, and towed to the site prepared for it on Grays Reef. The crib was sunk into position on 3^rd September 1934 by filling its chambers with concrete and ballast rock. Forms were then erected atop the crib for constructing the structure's reinforced concrete pier. By the time work halted for the winter, the pier's six-foot-thick floor and walls had been completed.

Construction resumed in the spring of 1935. By June, the ballast rock had been removed from the crib, and its chambers filled with concrete. Further work on the pier included pouring a one-foot-thick reinforced concrete deck. This provided the roof for the storage rooms surrounding a 30-foot square open area in the center. This open space was where the station building's first-story machinery room was to be located. By the time work ended for the year, the pier was finished and the steel girder skeletal framework for the station building and light tower had been assembled.

In the spring of 1936 the station building and light tower's steel framework was sheathed with steel plates fastened with bolts and nuts. Concrete block walls were built inside the steel plating for insulation and for room partitions. Other work included installing the lantern, assembling the radio beacon antenna, setting up aid to navigation and mechanical equipment, and completing interior finishing work. The structure's construction was completed in September 1936. Light vessel LV 99 departed from Grays Reef when the light station was formally established. Its assignment there had made it the last operating light vessel in northern Lake Michigan.

The volume of commercial shipping passing the lighthouse at Grays Reef was substantial at the time of its establishment, and continued to grow through time. Commercial maritime traffic in the area today consists largely of freighters carrying miscellaneous goods, or coal, grain, or other bulk cargo.

Grays Reef Light Station was operated by the U.S. Lighthouse Service until that agency was incorporated into the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939. The Coast Guard maintained a staff of keepers at the lighthouse until 1976 when it was automated. The structure has been unoccupied since then, except for a few days each July during the annual sailing yacht race from Chicago to Mackinac Island. During this event, Coast Guard representatives and regatta personnel observe the racing contestants as they transit Grays Reef Passage on the way to the Straits of Mackinac.

The optic installed in the light station's lantern built in the 1930s was a third-and-a-half order Fresnel lens. This was removed in 1976 during the lighthouse's conversion to automation and a 190 mm Tidelands Signal optic installed in its place. The 190 mm optic was replaced in turn circa 1997 by the existing VRB-25 marine beacon. The Coast Guard has loaned the Grays Reef Light Station's original Fresnel lens to the Charlevoix Historical Society for public display. It can be seen today at the Harsha House Museum in Charlevoix, Michigan.

Other original aid to navigation equipment at this light included a compressed-air diaphone fog signal and a radio beacon. Both have been replaced. The existing fog signal is a modern horn that operates year-round and sounds two blasts every 30 seconds. The radio beacon is gone, and in its place a modern RACON radar beacon has been installed. It signals the Morse code letter "G." The property's existing light, sound, and radar aid to navigation equipment is powered by batteries recharged with a solar array. This array is mounted on a framework sitting atop the station building's roof, south of the light tower.

Site Description

Grays Reef Light Station is an offshore lighthouse in northeastern Lake Michigan about 20 miles west of the Straits of Mackinac. It marks a hazardous reef lying next to Grays Reef Passage, an important shipping channel. This lighthouse sits on submerged land in 26 feet of water. It was built by the U.S. Lighthouse Service from 1934 to 1936. It includes a steel, Art Deco-style station building with an integrated light tower sitting atop a concrete pier supported by a wooden crib foundation. The pier measures 64 feet square at its top deck which is 21.5 feet above lake level. The crib foundation is filled with concrete and surrounded by riprap. The station building and light tower are painted white, while the lighthouse's lantern is black. The focal plane of its signal light is 82 feet above lake level. A non-functioning radio antenna 40 feet tall is mounted atop the lantern. This lighthouse is owned by the U.S. Coast Guard and operated as an automated aid to navigation. It is equipped with a modern light, fog signal, and RACON radar beacon powered by batteries recharged using a solar array.

Grays Reef Light Station is a prominent landmark in the open waters of northeastern Lake Michigan. It is located about 20 miles west of the Straits of Mackinac and 3.8 miles west of Waugoshance Island. It marks Grays Reef, a dangerous hazard to navigation on the west side of the Grays Reef Passage shipping channel. This locality becomes even more hazardous to vessels during periods of fog.

Grays Reef Passage is about two miles long by 0.6 miles wide. Since the nineteenth century, it has been part of a heavily traveled shipping lane for vessels navigating between ports along central and southern Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes. The passage's navigation channel makes an elbow bend near the lighthouse where vessels must turn to avoid hazardous waters. The lighthouse is a landmark for making this course change.

The light station structure sits in 26 feet of water. It includes a wooden crib foundation surrounded by riprap, concrete pier, station building with an integral light tower, and a lantern. The lantern's roof is 86 feet above the level of Lake Michigan. A 40-foot-tall radio beacon antenna stands atop the lantern.

Crib Foundation and Concrete Pier

Grays Reef Light Station is an example of the crib foundation lighthouse type. It sits atop a 64-foot square by 21.5-foot tall box-like wooden crib built with 12-inch by 12-inch timbers from six to 32 feet in length. These timbers are fastened with drift pins, steel threaded rods, washers, and nuts. Work to assemble the crib began in the summer of 1934 at St. Ignace, Michigan, and was completed in September. The crib was then towed to the lighthouse's designated location on Grays Reef where it was sunk into place by filling several of its compartments with rock and concrete. Other compartments were filled with concrete after the crib was placed in position, and it was surrounded with a 40-foot wide deposit of protective stone riprap that grades down from about 16 feet thick at the crib.

A reinforced concrete pier 64 feet square by 21.5 feet tall was constructed atop the crib. Its floor and four outer walls are six feet thick. The open area in the middle is partitioned into several basement storage rooms on four sides of an elevated central area. This central area is the floor for the station building's first story. It is 14 feet above lake level, six feet higher than the storage room floors. The roof for the basement storage rooms is the pier's one-foot-thick reinforced concrete deck. It is pierced with rectangular access hatchways and round manholes.

The light station is accessible from a boat in two ways. A metal ladder is set into a vertical notch near the center of each of the pier's four exterior sides. These extend the 21.5-foot distance from the waterline to the pier deck. There are also two sea doors. They are seven feet tall by five feet wide. One is built into the pier's north side just above the waterline, and the other on the east side. These allow access to a vessel moored alongside the structure. The eastern one holds its original metal door. The northern doorway is closed off with a steel plate. Stairways inside these sea-doors lead up to the basement storage rooms.

The pier sits squarely atop its crib foundation. Its concrete surfaces are heavily weathered in many places. A band of steel plates about 10 feet wide surrounds the pier at the waterline. It extends five feet above and five feet below the water to protect the structure from ice damage. Above this band, the four corners of the square pier are beveled inward six feet. The chamfered corners rise vertically and give the pier deck an octagonal plan instead of square. A pair of steel bollards at each chamfered corner allows for securing mooring lines from visiting vessels. There are also two steel mooring rings affixed to each side of the pier near the waterline. One ring on the south side is missing. The pier's vertical sides slant inward slightly towards the top, and then flare outward two feet just below the deck to form a wave-deflecting projecting lip.

The pier deck is 21.5 feet above lake level. It surrounds the lighthouse's station building. The original concrete deck is presently covered with welded steel plates that prevent access to the basement hatchways and manholes. The deck's perimeter is ringed with welded angle-iron stanchions slung with slack steel cable.

A steel crane of 1930s vintage is mounted at the deck's northeast corner. The affixed identification plate indicates it was built by Clyde Iron Works of Duluth, Minnesota, and its serial number is X1079. The light station was originally equipped with two of these deck cranes. The one at the southwest corner is no longer present.

The basement inside the pier surrounds the station building's first story on four sides. The basement floor is five feet lower than the recessed first-story floor, which is four feet lower than the outside deck. Concrete stairways provide access between them. The basement includes storage rooms, a well, and stairways leading to the sea doors. The landings at the top of the sea-door stairways are enclosed by wood-framed vestibules with glass side lights.

The basement's middle storage room on the western side contains six 575-gallon steel tanks, 8.5 feet tall and 3.5 feet in diameter. Two, marked "fuel oil," have openings cut into them. Four others that held compressed air are intact. The light station's well is in the basement's northeast corner room. It extends down inside the crib foundation. The well's upper casing is made of concrete and capped with a steel cover. The casing is four feet in diameter and rises three feet above the basement floor. The middle storage room on the pier's south side contains four steel tanks installed horizontally. These were used for fuel oil. This room has a steel ladder extending from the floor to a manhole in the ceiling. The manhole is closed off at the top with a steel plate.

Station Building

The station building's design style is Art Deco. It is two stories tall with a flat roof and sits in the center of the pier. The building is painted white. Its first story was the light station's machinery room. The second story contains the living quarters. The station building is about 30 feet square by 15 feet tall, and built of steel framework and sheathing fastened with bolts and nuts. The bolt heads are on the exterior. The building's corners are chamfered, giving it an octagonal footprint. The four chamfered corners are decorated with a centered vertical channel that suggests fluting. A louver at the base of each corner channel provides ventilation for the first story, which is recessed five feet below the level of the pier's deck.

The station building's four principal sides are each divided into three bays with three window openings, except for the side with the entrance. Second-story windows are arranged directly above the corresponding first-story windows. A panel below each second-story window holds a surface-applied decorative ring that simulates a port light. Fenestration is steel sash casement windows that appear to be original. There are 22 windows, 11 on the first story and 11 on the second. Each consists of individual or multiple standardized units. First-story window units are three feet tall by two feet wide, and include six lights arranged two-over-two-over-two. These lighted the first-story machinery room. At the present time, the exterior of each first-story window is covered with a metal plate, except for the east facade southern window which holds a hooded ventilator exhaust. Second-story window units are four feet tall by two feet wide and hold eight lights arranged two-over-two-over-two-over-two. These windows light the living quarters.

The building has only one entrance, located on its north facade. A single concrete step rises from the deck in front. The entry holds its original single-leaf metal door. This is pierced with a four-light, two-over-two window opening presently closed off with a metal plate. The name "GRAYS REEF" in black-painted metal capital letters is centered above the door. A rectangular outline stain below the name marks the former position of a decorative cast iron plaque that is now missing. The entrance is flanked left and right by a second-story window above a first-story window. The second-story windows are single 8-light units while the first-story windows are single 6-light units.

The station building's east facade has three second-story windows above three on the first story. The first story's center window holds three 6-light units separated by mullions. It is flanked left and right by single 6-light units. These windows are covered with metal plates. The second story's center window holds three 8-light units separated by mullions. This is flanked by a single 8-light unit on either side.

The south facade and west facade are similar to one another. The first-story has three window openings. The center one holds three 6-light windows separated by mullions. The flanking windows on the left and right hold a single 6-light window unit each. These first-story windows are covered with metal plates. The second story has three window openings. Each holds a single 8-light unit. The west facade's second-story center window is covered with a metal plate.

The vestibule inside the entrance is a landing that adjoins stairway flights leading up and down. The flight going up has six steps and leads to the second-story living quarters. The flight going down has eight steps and leads to the first-story machinery room.

The machinery room measures 28 feet square and has a concrete floor. On the north side, the stairway leading down from the vestibule adjoins another flight of ten stairs leading down to the basement's north-side hallway. Four columns in the room's center provide support for the superstructure above. The walls surrounding it hold two rows of windows. The upper row includes the first-story windows visible from outside the building. Inside the machinery room, there are corresponding window openings underneath these. They provide light to the basement level below.

All the machinery has been removed. The machinery room is presently vacant except for a wood-framed plywood enclosure with two doorways that occupies its southern half. This carpentry-work enclosure is not original to the structure.

The stair flight going up from the entrance vestibule leads to a landing in front of the doorway for the second-story living quarters. This door opens onto a hallway seven feet long by four feet wide oriented east-west. The hall provides access to rooms on the eastern and western sides of the second story. A doorway on the hall's southern side directly opposite the entry gives access to the stairway leading up to the light tower. The door at the hallway's eastern end leads to the second story's northeast corner room. The hall's west door leads to a vestibule with access to two bedrooms and a bathroom.

The original layout of the second-story living quarters has been modified. Its eastern part originally consisted of three rooms. A partition separating two has been removed so now there are two. Except for this, the 1930s floor plan remains intact. The existing living quarters are in fair condition. Most of its original rooms and walls remain intact, though peeling paint is widespread. The existing windows appear to be original and are in good condition.

In the original design, the second story's largest room was in the northeast corner. It contained the kitchen and dining areas. The southeast corner room was used as the light station's radio room. A doorway at its west side gave access to an adjoining bedroom (bedroom #1), located on the second story's south side. The partition separating the former radio room and adjoining bedroom has been removed to create a single large room. The western half of the second story originally included two bedrooms (bedrooms #2 and #3) and a bathroom entered by way of the vestibule at the main hallway's west end. These rooms remain intact.

At present, the east end of the second story's entrance hallway leads to the northeast room, as it did originally. The northeast room contained the light station's kitchen and dining areas. It is 20 feet long north-south by 10.5 feet wide. There are wall- and floor-mounted wooden cabinets, counters, a sink, a range hood, and tiled walls in the room's northwest corner. These appear to date circa 1960-1970. The dining area occupied the southern half of this room. The south wall of the northeast room partitions it from the former radio room. The existing wall is made with wood framing and includes a decorated metal door that appears to date circa 1960-1970. Marks on the floor about one foot south of this partition indicate the position of an earlier wall that has been removed.

The doorway in the south partition wall leads to a room enclosure in the southeast corner of the second story. It is about 18 feet long east-west by 10 feet wide north-south, and is built of 2x4 lumber and plywood. This enclosure is built inside the station building's original interior walls. It occupies the space where the original radio room and bedroom #1 had been located. The partition wall that formerly separated them has been removed. The existing southeast room enclosure contains electrical panels, wiring, and batteries that provide power for the lighthouse's aid to navigation equipment.

The original rooms in the second story's southeast part included the southeast corner radio room, 11 feet long north-south by 10.5 feet wide east-west, and the adjoining bedroom (bedroom #1), eight feet wide east-west by 10 feet north-south. There was also a two-foot by three-foot closet at the bedroom's southwest corner. These spaces are now occupied by the existing wood-frame room enclosure, except for the west end where the existing wood-frame wall leaves a space two feet wide between it and bedroom #1's original west wall. This space is presently empty except for electrical wiring attached to the wall. It is accessible only from bedroom #2. The former closet for bedroom #1 is now a passageway between bedroom #2 and the two-foot wide space on the west side of the wood-frame enclosure.

The western part of the living quarters is entered from the main hallway through a doorway leading to a vestibule seven feet long north-south by four feet wide. The vestibule includes a closet on its east side and the doorway to the bathroom on its west side. The bathroom is 6.5 feet long east-west by five feet wide. It contains tiled walls and a shower that appears to date circa 1950 to 1960. No sink, toilet, or bathtub is present. The south end of the vestibule leads to the second story's southwest corner bedroom (bedroom #2). It measures 14 feet long north-south by 10 feet wide. There are two closets set into its east wall. Both are three feet wide by two feet deep. Originally, this room had been separated from bedroom #1 by a partition wall. An opening has been cut through this partition in the room's southeast corner. It leads through the former closet for bedroom #1 to the narrow space between the west end of bedroom #1 and the existing wood-frame enclosure containing the lighthouse's existing electrical power equipment. The vestibule's north end leads to the northwest corner bedroom (bedroom #3). It is 10 feet long north-south by nine feet wide and has a two-by-four-foot closet in its northeast corner.

The stairway leading up to the light tower is entered from the second story's main hallway. It is also the way to the station building's roof. The stairway's steps, newel posts, and handrails are steel. It leads up to the room inside the base of the light tower. This room is the light station's third story. There is a doorway on the room's east side that provides access to the station building's flat roof.

The station building's roof is made of concrete. It slopes slightly toward the outer periphery for drainage. The roof's perimeter is bordered by a low parapet wall topped with steel pipe stanchions supporting a steel pipe guard rail. A triangular steel bracket is attached to the roof's edge at the northeast corner and another at the southwest corner. These are supports for the top end of the two cranes installed on the pier deck in the 1930s. While the northeast crane remains, the other is gone. A modern solar array is mounted on the roof on the south side of the tower. It charges the batteries that power the lighthouse's existing aid to navigation equipment. A modern fog signal device stands near the roof's southeast corner.

Light Tower and Lantern

The light tower rises from the center of the station building roof. It is built with bolted steel framework and sheathing, measures about 10.5 by 10.5 feet in plan, and is 40.5 feet tall. The tower's corners are chamfered, giving it an octagonal footprint. The exterior of the chamfered corners includes a decorative vertical channel similar to the station building's chamfered corners. The tower is supported at the base by four corner buttresses. These increase its footprint on the station building roof to about 16 by 16 feet. The buttresses are rectangular at the base and curve gracefully upward to merge with the tower's vertical sides. The tower's flat top supports the lighthouse's lantern, which is 10 feet tall. The lantern's roof is 87 feet above lake level.

The room at the base of the tower includes a doorway on the east side leading to the station building roof. This doorway has a wooden five-panel door on the inner side, and a steel door on the outer side. The outer door is pierced with a round port-light opening covered with Plexiglas. The room's west wall opposite the door is pierced with a 16-inch diameter port-light. The north and south walls at this level each have a single round opening. These are presently covered with metal plates. Both formerly held a single resonator horn for the light station's original diaphone fog signal.

The steel stairway inside the tower is configured in a series of perpendicular flights. It includes landings corresponding to the light station's fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh stories. The fourth and fifth-story landings measure five by 10 feet and span half of the tower's interior. The fourth story is lighted by four steel sash 3-light casement windows. These are one-foot wide by three feet tall and hold one-over-one-over-one lights. There are no windows on the fifth-story landing.

The tower's stairway ends at the sixth-story landing. This is partitioned from the tower's interior by a wall of steel plates forming an enclosed room. This room is accessed from the stairway through a doorway. The doorway holds a steel door pierced with a round opening from which the port-light is missing. The sixth-story room measures five by 10 feet. It is similar to the landings below except for being enclosed. This room is lighted on its south, west, and north sides by individual three-light steel sash casement windows identical to those on the fourth story. The corresponding window on the tower's east side lights the stairway. A steel ship's ladder at the northern end of the sixth-story room leads upward to the watch room through a rectangular opening in the ceiling. This opening holds a metal trap door.

The seventh-story watch room measures about 10 by 10 feet. It is vacant except for another steel ship's ladder leading up to the lantern room. Each of the watch room's four principal walls is pierced with a 14-inch diameter round opening. Each of these holds a screened louver which has replaced the original port-light. The rectangular opening in the ceiling above the steel ladder holds a metal trap door.

The lighthouse's eighth-story lantern is centered atop the tower. It is surrounded by an octagonal gallery bounded by a railing with three guardrails made of welded steel pipe. A steel smokestack rises from the gallery's southeastern corner. A RACON antenna is mounted atop a small platform affixed to the gallery's northeast corner.

The lantern is circular, made of steel plates, and painted black. Its bottom half is a parapet wall made with eight segmental curved steel panels. One panel holds a door allowing access from the lantern room to the gallery. The lantern's upper half holds helical astragals made with X-shaped steel muntins. These muntins hold diamond and triangle-shaped glazing. The room inside the lantern is seven feet in diameter. A steel pedestal stands in the center of the floor. It supports a modern VRB-25 marine rotating beacon with red lenses on all sides. The lantern's roof consists of eight triangular plates bolted together. It is reinforced with two I-beams forming a cross supporting a steel pipe column that rises to the roof's apex.

A 40-foot tall aluminum radio antenna stands atop the lantern. Its base is affixed to the lantern roof at a single point from which rise four tubes of aluminum conduit. These tubes are connected with cross-pieces to form a lattice framework. The antenna's skeletal lattice closes back at the top to a single point. The antenna is guyed with eight cable stays affixed to the lantern gallery's perimeter outside the railing. The antenna was part of the light station's radio beacon system that operated from 1936 until being replaced by more modern equipment. The lighthouse is presently equipped with a modern RACON radar beacon.

Changes Over Time

The Grays Reef Light Station's appearance has changed little since its initial establishment. Differences between 1936 and now relate largely to replacing obsolete equipment and making limited interior carpentry modifications to the first-story and second-story interiors. The structure's original architectural design and structural integrity remain intact.

The light station's original aid to navigation and mechanical equipment have been removed and replaced. In 1936 it was equipped with a third and a half order Fresnel lens. This was replaced with a 190 mm optic when the station was automated in 1976. The original Fresnel lens was subsequently loaned by the U.S. Coast Guard to the Charlevoix Historical Society. It may be seen today at the Harsha House Museum in Charlevoix, Michigan. Around 1997 the 190 mm optic was replaced with a modern VRB-25 marine beacon. The light station's original diaphone fog signal and radio beacon equipment have also been removed, though the radio beacon's 40-foot antenna remains.

This lighthouse continues to be operated by the Coast Guard as an automated aid to navigation. It is assigned identification number 17775 on the Great Lakes Light List. The existing VRB-25 optic flashes red for one second every ten seconds. The light signal's focal plane is 82 feet above mean low water and is visible for 15 miles in clear weather. The lighthouse is also equipped with a modern automatic fog signal that sounds two blasts every 30 seconds year-round. The station's original radio beacon has been replaced by a RACON radar transponder beacon mounted on the light tower that transmits the Morse code letter "G" as its identifier. The existing aid to navigation equipment is powered by batteries and an electrical system with modern panels and wiring. The batteries are recharged using the solar array mounted on the station building roof.

The light station's machinery room was originally equipped with generators, a boiler, and air compressors. The generators provided electricity. The boiler provided hot water for the structure's heating system. The compressors provided compressed air for the diaphone fog signal units mounted in the light tower. This machinery has been removed. Steel tanks that formerly held fuel oil remain in the light station's basement. These have been emptied and left in place.

Changes made to the light station's interior include removing the original partition walls and building new ones. These include the original wall separating the radio room from the dining area, and wood-frame enclosures in the machinery room and living quarters. The wood-frame enclosures appear to have been built around the time the light station was automated in 1976. The one in the second-story living quarters presently contains batteries and electrical panels for the lighthouse's existing aid to navigation equipment. The enclosure in the machinery room occupies about one-half of the first story's floor space. It appears to have been built after the light station's original machinery had been removed, possibly when the light was automated.

At the time Grays Reef Light Station was initially established, a decorative plaque with raised lettering was present above the station building's entrance. This is now missing. A photograph from 1979 in the U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office shows how the plaque looked. The heading at the top of this plaque was "Department of Commerce." At the bottom, it was labeled "17 Lighthouse Service 89." The plaque's center field was a relief figure of a lighthouse with stylized water below. The raised text "Erected 1934" was centered in the stylized water. This plaque was bolted to the building's facade at four points. Each bolt head was capped with a raised five-pointed star cover. At present, the plaque's former position is indicated by a stain on the facade showing its outline and four empty bolt holes.

Another change made to the lighthouse is the use of a different shade of white for its daymark. The station building and light tower were originally painted creamy white with the lantern painted black. The present coloration of the station building and tower is a lighter shade of white. The lantern continues to be painted black.