Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Lighthouse, Lackawanna New York
Established in 1903, the Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light marks the southern entry from Lake Erie to the port of Buffalo. This aid to navigation has been an important guide for commercial shipping and recreational watercraft for more than a century. The property has been unmanned since 1962, and its lighthouse and fog signal no longer operate. The existing aid to navigation is a modern-day board and automated beacon with a solar array atop an 11-foot tall steel pole.
The Great Lakes region includes Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan, and Superior, their connecting waters, and the St. Lawrence River. It is one of the largest concentrations of fresh water on earth. The system has a total shoreline of about 11,000 statute miles, and a total water surface area of about 95,000 square miles. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 linked Buffalo, New York, on Lake Erie with New York City via the Hudson River. This marked the start of enormous growth in population, maritime traffic and trade throughout the Great Lakes Region. In 1829, the Welland Canal opened and linked Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal (the Soo Locks) at Sault Ste. Marie opened in 1855, thus completing one of the last major links in the Great Lakes navigation system. With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, the system provided access by oceangoing deep-draft vessels to the industrial and agricultural heartland of North America. Today, small craft and barge traffic reach the Great Lakes from the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River and the Illinois Waterway, and from eastern New York via the Hudson River and New York State Barge Canal System.
Commerce in the Great Lakes region grew rapidly and exponentially throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. The lumber industry accounted for early development and expansion of maritime traffic, leading to an increase in aids to navigation in the area. As early as 1852, over 4 million tons of shipments were transported by commercial vessels in the Great Lakes. This consisted largely of lumber and grain. In following years, the production of iron ore from mines in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, northern Wisconsin and Minnesota's Mesabi district, copper from Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula region, along with grain from Midwestern states, furnished southbound cargos. These shipments corresponded with the heavy northbound transport of coal from ports in the lower Great Lakes. By 1910, the amount of shipped goods increased to 80 million tons, consisting mainly of iron ore and coal. In 1915, limestone emerged as an important bulk commodity in the region. The volume of freight tonnage shipped reached a record high of 217 million tons in 1948. The combined movement of lumber, grain, iron ore, and coal together with limestone cargos from the Lake Huron area to the centers of steel production, resulted in the greatest bulk freight maritime commerce the world has ever seen.
The need for aids to navigation on the Great Lakes increased along with the expansion of shipping and settlement. Seven lighthouses were built on the Great Lakes between 1818 and 1822. Thirty-two lighthouses were completed during the 1830s. By 1840, 43 lighthouses were in operation on the Great Lakes including 17 on Lake Erie, 11 on Lake Michigan, 9 on Lake Ontario, 4 on Lake Huron, one on Lake St. Clair, and one on the Detroit River. From 1841 to 1852, the lighthouse establishment added 33 new lights.> Between 1852 and 1860, the total number of aids to navigation increased from 76 to 102. There was a boom in lighthouse construction during in the 1890s, and by the beginning of the twentieth century, the Great Lakes had 334 major lighted aids, 67 fog signals, and 563 buoys.
Several distinct designs or types of lighthouses emerged during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Until 1870 or so, the most common design consisted of a wood, stone, or brick keeper's dwelling with the light exhibited in a lantern on the roof or in an attached square tower. By the 1870s, taller towers connected to a keeper's house by an enclosed passageway became popular. Lighthouse engineers practiced and perfected the construction of light stations on isolated islands, reefs, and shoals from 1870 to 1910. Such lighthouses most commonly rested on submarine crib foundations made with timber or concrete. A widespread lighthouse type was the pierhead light. Usually constructed of metal plates, pierhead lights guide vessels into a harbor. There are a substantial number of these in the Great Lakes region. Such lights differ from East Coast lights that serve the same purpose in that they were constructed on piers that project from shore into the lakes rather than on land. Breakwater lights are closely related to pierhead lights. They are generally tower-like structures, positioned at the head of a breakwater.
Light vessels also served as a substitute for building expensive lighthouses at offshore sites during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. However, harsh weather frequently forced a lightship to leave its station before mid-December when the Great Lakes shipping season ended. In addition, lightships often had to wait in port at the start of the yearly shipping season in mid-April until larger, stronger vessels could break ice that blocked returning to their stations. These circumstances meant that dangerous areas were sometimes left unmarked for a period of time. Lighthouse engineers worked throughout the late 1920s and 1930s to replace all remaining lightships on the Great Lakes with permanent aids to navigation. This important advance in the Federal aids to navigation program promoted safer travel and an increase in maritime commerce.
The United States Coast Pilot, describes Buffalo Harbor as "located at the E[ast] end of Lake Erie, where it converges to an open and comparatively shallow bay about 8 miles across N[orth] and S[outh] and is subject to great storms from the S[outh]W[est]." The port of Buffalo is spread along the lake's eastern shore with entrances to the harbor located at the north and south ends. A series of breakwaters oriented approximately parallel to shore form an outer and inner harbor. In addition, the terminus of the Erie Canal connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson River is located on the east bank of the Niagara River just north of Buffalo. Through time, the number of aids to navigation at Buffalo grew to 9 light stations and a lightship, in addition to several secondary aids. This attests to the importance of commercial maritime transportation at this location.
On 3 March 1805, a Congressional act made the village of Buffalo, New York, an official United States port of entry. Planning soon began to construct a light station at Buffalo, but the project was postponed due to the outbreak of the War of 1812. The project continued following the war's conclusion in 1815, and a parcel of land was purchased in 1817 for the proposed lighthouse. A 30-foot light tower built of stone was completed the following year. This lighthouse is arguably the first lighthouse built on the Great Lakes. Since Buffalo Harbor was little more than a sand-clogged creek mouth at the time, the state legislature authorized a $12,000 loan to improve the harbor by dredging to increase its water depth. In 1825, the Erie Canal opened for business, and Buffalo soon became one of the busiest ports in the world. This led to complaints that the existing Buffalo Lighthouse was poorly positioned and its light was too weak. As a consequence, the original lighthouse was replaced with a new octagonal stone tower built in 1833 at the end of a harbor pier. Just one year before the improved lighthouse was completed, Buffalo officially become a city.
By 1837, officials from the U.S. Navy noted that Buffalo Harbor was becoming increasingly busier and more congested. They suggested building a second lighthouse. Before receiving approval and funding for this task, a strong gale severely damaged the 1833 lighthouse's pier and parapet. The government began rebuilding the parapet wall but the project remained incomplete until 1854. In 1856, a fog bell and a third-order Fresnel lens were installed at the Buffalo Lighthouse. This required removing the original lantern and adding a new service room and lantern. The same year, Horseshoe Reef Light Station was established at the north end of Buffalo Harbor. It marks the beginning of the Niagara River and provided warning of strong currents there. The improvements to Buffalo Light and the new Horseshoe Reef Light, together with a 4,000-foot detached breakwater constructed in 1868 made access to Buffalo Harbor safer. In addition, the new breakwater significantly enlarged the harbor and increased the need for additional aids to navigation. Consequently, the U.S. Lighthouse Board undertook construction of a large light station on the breakwater in 1871. Its house-like structure sat atop a 40-foot square crib. The new Buffalo Breakwater Light was equipped with a fourth-order Fresnel lens, which was first lighted in 1872.
By the turn of the twentieth century, Buffalo had become the world's leading grain milling and storage center and lumber port. In addition, cheap electrical power provided by Niagara Falls enabled Buffalo to develop into one of the largest steel-producing centers in the United States. It became home to major steel mills owned by Bethlehem Steel, Lackawanna Steel, and Republic Steel. One of these was the Lackawanna Steel Mill, a sprawling industrial facility at the south end of Buffalo Harbor on the lakeshore southeast of Stony Point.
On 6 June 1900, Congress appropriated $45,000 to further improve aids to navigation at Buffalo. This included building a new light station offshore of Stony Point to mark the south entrance to Buffalo Harbor. On 10 September 1900, the State of New York granted the United States title to submerged land north of Stony Point for a breakwater to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Its construction began soon after. The state also granted title to a parcel of submerged land adjacent to the breakwater for the proposed lighthouse. The deed for the lighthouse parcel covered an area measuring 176 feet by 300 feet in 15 to 16 feet of water. This was inside the designated harbor limit line and thus could be filled.
In December 1901, the Lighthouse Board distributed plans and specifications for building a light tower and fog signal station at Stony Point, and advertised it in local newspapers and engineering publications. The Buffalo Dredging Company was awarded the contract for the price of $24,292. The work for the proposed lighthouse included building an L-shaped concrete pier supported by a wooden crib, and the foundations and superstructures of a light tower and fog signal building. The contract also covered building a smaller steel beacon, referred to as the "bottle light," to be located at the south end of the harbor's main breakwater opposite the South Entrance Light Station. The contract's deadline for this work was set as 31 December 1902.
The Buffalo Dredging Company completed the stone-filled timber crib and the concrete pier atop the crib by May 1902. Work on the light tower was delayed temporarily until ironwork for its superstructure arrived. Even so, the tower's interior wooden framework was completed by July 1902. The iron gallery and fourth-order lantern arrived at the work site in sufficient time to place it atop the tower in September. The project's construction was uncompleted by the onset of harsh winter weather in December. As a consequence, the Buffalo Dredging Company asked for received an extension of the deadline until 1 July 1903.
Work resumed in May 1903. By 30 June, it was nearly finished except for exterior painting. In July, a fourth-order Fresnel lens arrived from the Third Lighthouse District and was installed in the lantern. The completed project was inspected and approved in August. The new light station and the bottle light on the opposite side of the entrance were first lighted in September 1903.
An unresolved issue relating to the light station concerned the submerged land between the lighthouse site and the natural mainland at Stony Point. The underwater terrain between the natural shore and the harbor line was owned by the Lackawanna Steel Company which intended to fill this area. The steel company volunteered to fill the area from Stony Point to the lighthouse site, free of charge. This filling made it necessary for the Lighthouse Board to build a timber bulkhead retaining wall along the front of the lighthouse reservation to connect with the bulkhead being built by the Lackawanna Steel Company along their adjoining frontage. The Lighthouse Board justified the estimated $4,500 cost for building this bulkhead because the filling was free and it would also provide a suitable area on which to work and store supplies while completing work on the light station. The bulkhead project was advertised for bids, and the Lighthouse Board awarded the contract to Charles A. Dennis. The timber bulkhead's construction was underway by May 1903 and scheduled for completion by June 1904. During the work, an accident caused the pile-driving barge to sink, leading the contractor to request a 15-day extension which was granted.
In addition to building the Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light and the bottle light, the Lighthouse Board acquired a 0.1-acre land parcel from the Lackawanna Steel Company for building a duplex keepers dwelling. It was purchased for one dollar on 7 August 1902. Frank Petit of Buffalo won the contract for constructing the keepers dwelling at a cost of $8,764. A 1909 document entitled, "Description of Light-House Tower, Buildings, and Premises" states that the duplex was located onshore approximately one mile from the lighthouse, along a public street. The dwelling was constructed of brick on a stone foundation and topped with a slate roof. Each of its two adjoining living units contained six rooms, basement, and attic.
From 1903 to 1918, two keepers for Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light lived in the dwelling. One man was on duty at the light at all times. The principal keeper's annual salary was $560 and the assistant keeper received $450 per year. The Lighthouse Board decreased the keeper's wages by $35 per annum on 1 April 1904. In 1918, the Lighthouse Service decided that an additional keeper was necessary in order that two men remain on duty in the light station at night. Prior to this arrangement, stormy conditions sometimes made it impracticable for an off-duty keeper to reach the station and relieve the on-duty keeper. A severe storm in December 1917 prevented the on-duty keeper from accessing the fog signal house, resulting in the fog signal being out of commission when it was most necessary. In order to avoid repeating this situation, three keepers were assigned to the light station until it was automated in 1962. It was the last manned light station in Buffalo Harbor.
The Lighthouse Service was abolished as a separate federal agency in July 1939, and its duties were subsumed by the U.S. Coast Guard. Lighthouse keepers and assistant keepers employed by the Lighthouse Service were eventually phased out and replaced by Coast Guardsmen. The U.S. General Services Administration sold the keepers dwelling for Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light to Bethlehem Steel Company for $10,000 on 14 January 1954. From then to 1962, the station's keepers lived elsewhere.
Light stations in Buffalo Harbor were situated in exposed locations, and it was not unusual for a lighthouse to be struck by a passing vessel. Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light was damaged twice by steamers passing too closely. In one incident, the Wilson Transit Company paid for repairs after its steamer Wilson collided with the light station's crib foundation in 1910. In 1912, the Lighthouse Service charged W. A. Hawgood of Cleveland, Ohio, the sum of $320 for repairs after the steamer Henry B. Smith struck the northeast corner of the lighthouse's crib, breaking two piles and several 6-inch by 12-inch timbers.
Steamers were not the only danger to the light station. Inclement weather has also been a threat to lighthouses on the Great Lakes. An intense storm on 18 December 1921 caused significant damage as winds from the southwest and west attained a velocity of 96 miles per hour and water in the harbor rose approximately seven feet above mean lake level. Although the lighthouse tower was essentially unaffected, 32 inches of water filled the fog signal building and the foundation crib's bulkhead was badly damaged.
By 1923, the Lighthouse Service approved a recommendation to "rebuild the superstructure of the stone-filled timber crib walls on the east side and part of the north side, with concrete, putting on a concrete deck." This rebuilding completed work on the crib that began the previous year.
In 1934, a radio beacon station was established at Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light. It remained in operation until the late 1980s. The radio beacon system in the Great Lakes region first became operational at the beginning of the 1926 shipping season. Each of its radio beacons was a radio transmitter installed at a lighthouse or on a lightship. It emitted a signal on a specific radio frequency in order to provide mariners with a practical and reliable means for taking accurate bearings, even when fog or storms obscured traditional light and fog signals.
For a vessel to make use of a radio beacon, it had to be equipped with a radio receiver and direction-finding equipment. Following World War II, significant advancements in electronic navigation were made, including the widespread adoption of shipboard radar on commercial vessels, and the long-range radio navigation (LORAN) system. The success of these advancements ultimately led the Coast Guard to deactivate all of its radio beacon stations by the late 1980s.
Following the Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light's establishment, the Lighthouse Service made several additional improvements to aids to navigation for Buffalo Harbor. A second "bottle light" was built near the port's north entrance, and light vessel LV82 was commissioned on 3 August 1912. LV82 was positioned in Lake Erie approximately 13 miles offshore to mark the approaches to Buffalo Harbor.
In 1914, a $60,000 Congressional appropriation was used to rebuild the Buffalo Breakwater Light Station. It had been hit by a barge in 1900, a freighter in 1909, and a steamer in 1910. By the start of the 1914 navigational season, the third-order Fresnel lens in the 1833 Buffalo Harbor Light was relocated to the new Breakwater Light Station and a compressed air diaphone was installed. The new fog signal replaced the steam fog whistle used previously in the original Breakwater Light. A light was installed atop the Buffalo Intake Crib in 1920 to mark a new protected channel to the harbor. This eliminated the need for the nearby Horseshoe Reef Light. The Buffalo Breakwater Light Station remained the harbor's main light until the freighter Frontenac rammed it in 1958. The impact had such force that the lighthouse tilted 15 degrees and moved backward nearly 20 feet. In 1961, construction began on a new, automated, 71-foot tower on the harbor's outermost breakwater. Buffalo's "leaning lighthouse," as the local press often referred to it, was demolished after the new tower was completed.
Later in the 1960s, historic preservationists in the Buffalo area undertook to save the harbor's remaining lighthouses. By that time, little more than a skeleton of the Horseshoe Reef Light existed and the 1833 stone light tower was scheduled for demolition by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Public protest and a "Save the Light" campaign successfully prevented the stone tower's demolition, and restoration efforts were begun. A floodlight display temporarily relit the 1833 Buffalo Harbor Light Station for the United States' Bicentennial. This was done again for Buffalo's Sesquicentennial. Following these celebrations, interest in the tower waned and the structure deteriorated. In 1985, the Buffalo Lighthouse Association was formed to restore and maintain the light station. Upon restoration, a fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed in the 1833 lighthouse. This lens was removed from the lantern at Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light in 1967. The 1833 lighthouse was relit for the first Friendship Festival in 1987. It remains lighted today for display only and not for navigational purposes. Buffalo harbor's two "bottle lights" were also restored by the Buffalo Lighthouse Association and the U.S. Coast Guard in 1986. The North Bottle Light was relocated for exhibit purposes to a new position next to the 1833 Buffalo Harbor Light Station. The South Bottle Light was relocated to the Dunkirk Lighthouse and Veterans Park Museum in Dunkirk, New York, approximately 37 miles southwest of Buffalo. The 1961 Buffalo Breakwater Light continues to serve as Buffalo Harbor's principal active lighthouse.
Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light was operated by keepers for 46 years from 1903 until it was automated in 1962. In 1967, the lighthouse's original fourth-order Fresnel lens was removed and replaced with a modern 300-millimeter optic attached to the gallery railing. In 1993, a modern pole light and day board aid to navigation was erected atop the concrete pier at Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light to replace the light tower's 300-millimeter optic. It includes an 11-foot tall steel pole topped with an automated 250-millimeter acrylic lens beacon and day board markers. This modern light is powered by batteries recharged using a solar array. It continues operating today and is visited periodically for maintenance by personnel from the U.S. Coast Guard Aids to Navigation Team responsible for the area.
Building Description
Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light is located at Stony Point in the city of Lackawanna, Erie County, New York. It is situated on the Lake Erie waterfront near the shoreward end of the Buffalo Harbor south pier. This lighthouse property was established as an aid to navigation in 1903 to mark the southern entry into Buffalo Harbor. It includes three structures. These are a three-story cast iron light tower topped with a lantern, a one-story concrete fog signal building, and an L-shaped concrete pier. The tower and fog signal building sit atop the concrete pier and are connected by an enclosed passageway. The lighthouse's signal optic was discontinued in 1993. This property includes a modern beacon and day board aid to navigation supported by an 11-foot tall steel pole. This steel pole extends from the top of a concrete pedestal at the concrete pier's northern corner. The modern beacon is identified as number 2905 on the regional light list. It is 36 feet above water level and signals a flashing white light visible for 10 miles in clear weather. This property is owned by the U.S. Coast Guard. It is accessible by land with permission from the adjoining property owner, or by boat.
The following description is based on historic research and a field visit in April 2005 conducted by Karmen Bisher, maritime historian, and Jennifer Perunko, maritime historian, National Park Service. Background research examined materials such as construction plans, U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) maintenance records, and historical documentation gathered from archival collections and government agencies.
The Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light is located on the Lake Erie waterfront of the city of Lackawanna in Erie County, New York. It is situated on the eastern, inshore side of the Buffalo Harbor south breakwater, approximately 100 feet north of Stony Point. The breakwater extends north and northeast into Lake Erie from shore. This lighthouse marks the southern entry to Buffalo's outer harbor. The entry is formed by the opening between the south breakwater where the lighthouse is situated and the harbor's outer breakwater. The shore at Stony Point and adjoining lands are part of a privately owned steel mill industrial site. The lighthouse is accessible across this property with the landowner's permission. The Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light is also accessible by boat.
The lighthouse property owned by the USCG includes the lighthouse, fog signal building, and concrete pier. There is also a modern beacon and day board aid to navigation.
The lighthouse is 43 feet tall, conical, and built of cast iron plates. It sits atop the north end of the property's concrete pier. It includes a three-story tower and a lantern with red-colored glazing. The light tower's first story is painted brown. The second and third stories are painted white. The lantern's parapet wall is painted white and its roof is painted black. The lighthouse's optic was discontinued and removed in 1993. The former optic's focal plane was 53 feet above lake level, due to additional height provided by the concrete pier.
The tower's first story is cylindrical and approximately 18 feet in diameter. It sits atop a concrete platform. The tower is pierced on the northeast side with a rectangular doorway surrounded by a simple casing. This doorway is approximately 3.5 feet above the deck of the concrete pier and is fitted with a corrugated metal door. A flight of 5 wooden steps provides access from the pier deck to the doorway. The first story's exterior is pierced with a rectangular window on the north side. It has a projecting cast iron casing surmounted with a hood. This window is covered with metal shutters.
An enclosed gable-roof passageway is attached to the tower's first story on the southwest side. It provides sheltered access between the tower and the fog signal building and may be entered through a doorway inside the tower. The passageway is clad with corrugated sheet metal and is painted brown. A rectangular window opening pierces its southeast side wall and another pierces the northwest side wall. The original one-over-one, double-hung window sash remains in the southeast wall, but the glass panes are missing. The window opening in the northwest wall is covered with a side-hinged metal shutter on the outside, and with plywood on the inside. A large, yellow-colored rectangular metal box sits beside the exterior of the northwest wall. The passageway includes an upper landing next to the light tower, a wooden stairway, and a lower landing next to the fog signal building. The side wall windows provided light. The stairway adjoins the upper landing and descends clockwise to the lower landing. The passageway's interior walls are lined with bead-board. The floor and ceiling are lined with wooden boards. A small wooden cabinet with one shelf sits on the lower landing's floor against the northwest wall. The lower landing's southwest wall is pierced with a doorway that leads to the fog signal building. This doorway is fitted with a 4-panel wooden door.
The lighthouse's second and third stories are conical and sit atop the cylindrical first story. The second story is approximately 12 feet in diameter at the base. The exterior transition between the first and second stories is formed by a metal apron around the second story's base. The apron is painted white. The second story is pierced with two rectangular windows. The third story is pierced with one rectangular window. Each of these window openings is surrounded by a projecting cast iron casing surmounted with a hood. All three windows are covered with metal shutters.
The tower supports the lighthouse's lantern and open-air lantern gallery. The gallery is circular and extends beyond the tower's perimeter, supported by decorative cast iron brackets. There are 16 iron stanchions topped with ball finials spaced at equal intervals around the gallery's perimeter. They support a two-tiered iron railing. The lantern is circular and sits centered atop the tower. It is of the fourth order class and is approximately 8 feet in diameter. The lantern's parapet (lower) wall is made of cast iron plates and is painted white. A door on one side provided access to the gallery from the lantern room. The glazing above the parapet consists of glass panes held by cast iron astragals arranged in helical fashion. The glazing is colored red. The lantern's roof springs from a soffit above the glazing. It is made with triangular iron plates that peak at a vent opening that supports a vent ball. The lightning rod that originally extended upward from the vent ball is missing. The roof is painted black.
The tower's doorway on the northeast side leads to the first-story room. The wall surrounding the circular first-story room is lined with bead-board paneling stained dark brown and sealed with a glossy finish.
The first story's wooden floor is stained the same brown color. It is pierced by a trapdoor that provides access to the tower's basement room by way of an 8-rung wooden ship's ladder. The basement is recessed into the concrete pier beneath the light tower. It contains a single circular room. This room's surrounding wall and floor are concrete painted white.
To the left of the first-story entrance door, a two-step stairway leads up to a small landing. This landing provides access through a doorway to the passageway leading to the fog signal building, and also to a 14-step wooden closed-string staircase leading to the tower's second story. The ascending stairway is attached to the tower's interior wall and winds in a clockwise direction. Each stair tread bears a textured rubber mat for traction. A wooden handrail extends from a newel post at the foot of the stairs to another newel post on the second story. Underneath this staircase, there is a first-story closet. It is accessed through a doorway fitted with a 6-panel wooden door that is missing its doorknob. The closet's interior is painted white. Inside it rests the lighthouse entrance's original 6-panel wooden door. There is a rectangular window opening farther around the first-story room in a clockwise direction from the closet. This window is covered with plywood.
The tower's second story is much like the first story. It has a single circular room with a wooden floor. Bead-board covers the surrounding wall. A built-in cabinet with double-doors and five shelves projects from the wall. A hollow, square wooden column extends from floor to ceiling in the center of the room. This column formerly housed the weights for the clockwork mechanism that rotated the lighthouse's original optic. The room's surrounding wall is pierced with two rectangular windows fitted with two-over-two, double-hung sash. They are covered on the outside with metal shutters. A flight of 14 wooden stairs ascends clockwise from the second story to the third story. Each stair tread holds a textured rubber mat. A wooden handrail extends between newel posts at the foot and head of this stairway.
The tower's third story is the lighthouse's watch room. Its surrounding wall is circular and the floor is wooden. The ceiling is made with iron plates that form the platform supporting the lantern and lantern gallery. A wooden column extends from floor to ceiling in the center of the room. It is the continuation of the column on the second story. The column's upper part contains a hinged door for access to the clockwork mechanism, which has been removed. The third-story watch room also contains built-in cabinetry similar to the second story. The room's wall is pierced with a single-window fitted with two-over-two, double-hung sash. It is covered on the outside with metal shutters. A slanted, 10-rung metal ship's ladder with a pipe handrail extends from the watch room floor to a trapdoor in the ceiling. It provides access to the lantern.
The lantern room is circular and approximately 8 feet in diameter. The floor is made with cast iron plates textured with a diamond pattern. The trapdoor entry to the lantern pierces the floor. It has two leaves that are hinged to the floor and open upward. There is a circular hole in the center of the floor where the pedestal that supported the optic was formerly located. The optic and its pedestal have been removed. The original pedestal was hollow to accommodate the clockwork mechanism that rotated the optic.
The parapet wall surrounding the lantern room is made with eight cast iron plates that are painted white. Every other plate contains a circular vent, each of which is missing its cover. One parapet plate is pierced with a doorway for access to the lantern gallery. The original door has been removed and the opening is now covered with plywood. The glazing above the parapet consists of glass panes held by metal astragals arranged in helical fashion. The panes are colored red and some are cracked. The triangular pane above the gallery door is fitted with clear Plexiglas. The ceiling is made with triangular-shaped, cast iron plates that rise from a soffit above the glazing and meet at a circular vent opening at the apex. The vent cover is missing.
The fog signal building is one story tall and built of concrete with a barrel-vault metal roof. It is 24 feet wide by 30.5 feet long by 15 feet tall. It sits atop the concrete pier approximately 15 feet south of the light tower. The building's roof, southeast side, and northeast side are visible. Its other sides are concealed by the concrete pier. A large, metal, dormer-like sound reflector sits atop the center on the roof on the western side. It faces southwest toward the open waters of Lake Erie. The reflector's face is circular, 12 feet in diameter and made of sheet metal. Two non-functioning fog signal resonator horns extend horizontally from its center. There are several holes in the fog signal building's roof, and the remainder of the structure's exterior metalwork is corroded. The building's southeast wall, facing toward Stony Point, adjoins a rectangular deck that is part of the concrete pier. This wall is pierced with a metal double-door painted reddish-brown that is chained and padlocked on the inside. A metal flag pole attached to the building's exterior wall is next to the doorway. It projects above the roof line.
The fog signal building's interior is accessed either from the light tower via the enclosed passageway on the north, or from the pier's lower deck through the metal double-doors on the south. The fog signal building is lower than the lighthouse. The passageway's lower landing is several feet above the building's floor. Its threshold adjoins a landing inside the fog signal building from which a 9-step metal stairway descends along the building's northwest interior wall to a concrete floor.
The fog signal building's fenestration includes a square window in the southeast wall above the double-doorway. It is sealed with plywood. There are also two larger rectangular window openings on the northeast side wall. One of the northeast windows retains its original three-over-three, double-hung sash. The second window's sash lies on the floor inside the building. Both windows are covered on the exterior with metal shutters.
The building's interior consists of one large open room and a privy. The interior walls are concrete painted white and the concrete floor is painted red. Much of this paint is peeling. The vaulted ceiling is supported with exposed metal beams, which are corroded. Two metal light fixtures hang from the metal beams. The roof's metal cladding is pierced with several holes. The building's fog signal equipment has been removed except for some non-functioning electrical boxes hanging on the northwest wall beside the stairs. Three rectangular concrete platforms, which formerly supported machinery, rise from the floor. The privy is situated next to the base of the metal stairway at the eastern end of the building's northeast wall. It is built of concrete and overhangs the pier. This privy has a metal shed roof and its exterior wall is pierced with a two-over-two, double-hung sash window. Its door has been removed. There is a bench seat with a circular hole that is open to the water below.
The pier is L-shaped and built of concrete. An elevated concrete wall reinforced with buttresses extends along its western side, which faces the open waters of Lake Erie. This wall is approximately 4 feet tall and provides protection from wave action. The pier's eastern side is sheltered. Steel ladders attached to this side of the pier provide for access from boats.
The northern section of the L-shaped pier is oriented southwest-northeast and is approximately 30 feet wide by 40 feet long. Its deck is approximately 13 feet above lake level. This northern section supports the light tower and contains the lighthouse's recessed basement. It also supports the enclosed passageway that connects the light tower with the fog signal building. The property's modern aid to navigation stands at the northern corner of this section of the pier. It includes a steel pole that supports a modern beacon and day board markers. The pier's southern part is oriented northwest-southeast and is approximately 30 feet wide by 50 feet long. Its deck is approximately four feet above water level. This section of the pier supports the fog signal building. An 8-step concrete stairway with a pipe handrail descends from the pier's upper deck to the lower deck at the southeastern end of the fog signal building.
Located atop the northern corner of the concrete pier is a modern aid to navigation supported by an 11-foot tall steel pole with a rectangular concrete base. This aid to navigation is identified as number 2905 on the regional light list. It includes a modern automated 250-millimeter acrylic lens beacon, triangular day board markers, and a solar array. This beacon is 36 feet above water level and signals a flashing white light that is visible for 10 miles in clear weather. The solar array recharges batteries that power the beacon.
The property's structures are very much the same today as when they were built. The principal changes that have occurred relate to equipment that has been removed. This includes the lighthouse optic, fog signal, and radiobeacon equipment. The original optic was a fourth-order Fresnel lens constructed by Barbier, Benard and Turenne of Paris. It began operating at Buffalo Harbor South Entrance Light in September 1903. This was a rotating signal light using an oil lamp that produced a 1,800-candlepower white and red flash. It had a focal plane of 53 feet and was visible for 15 miles in clear weather. In November 1917 a Delco electrical power supply was installed and the light source was upgraded to a 100-watt lamp. This increased the optic's intensity to 150,000 candlepower. The lighthouse was automated in 1935. The original Fresnel lens was removed from the lantern in 1967 and replaced with a modern 300-millimeter optic attached to the gallery outside the lantern. This modern beacon signaled a red light that cycled 4 seconds on, 4 seconds off. It was removed from the lighthouse in 1996 after the property's existing modern aid to navigation was installed. The original fourth-order Fresnel lens was displayed in the U.S. Coast Guard Group Buffalo Station until 1987. It was then installed in the restored Buffalo Main Light Station, a lighthouse that had originally been built in 1833.
This property's first fog signal was a siren powered by compressed air that began operating in November 1904. Its cycle was 2-seconds of sound followed by 28 seconds of silence. By 1935, this signal was replaced by a diaphone using two resonator horns. The fog signal was discontinued in the late 1970s and its equipment was removed. A radio beacon was installed at the light in the early 1930s. It included a steel skeletal tower that supported the radio beacon antenna. This tower was positioned at the concrete pier's northern corner. The radio beacon remained in operation until the late 1980s, when it was discontinued. The steel skeletal tower was removed from the pier in 1993. The existing modern aid to navigation, supported by an 11-foot tall steel pole, was subsequently erected at the skeletal tower's former location. The lighthouse's daymark coloration has also changed through time. Historic photos show the entire lantern was painted black during the early twentieth century. It is now white with a black roof. The historic photos also show a metal flue was formerly attached to the light tower's east side. It has been removed.
View of lighthouse property from Stony Point, looking north (2005)
Enclosed passageway exterior, fog signal building on right, looking east (2005)
Fog signal building roof and sound reflector, light tower in rear, looking northeast (2005)
Tower first story, entry to enclosed passageway, view from stairway, looking southeast (2005)
Tower second story, window and stairway to third story watch room (2005)
Tower third story watch room, hollow wooden column with hinged door, looking up (2005)
Fog signal building main room interior, northwest corner, looking north (2005)
Fog signal building main room interior, metal beams supporting roof, view from the enclosed passageway, looking south (2005)
