Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
The Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse began as the Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse with the purchase of ten acres of land on March 21, 1883. Sadly, the Chief Engineer Orville E. Babcock, along with three others drowned in the inlet once construction began. Despite this unfortunate setback the lighthouse was able to be completed in 1886.
In 1939, the Lighthouse was transferred from the abolished Lighthouse Service to the Coast Guard. During World War II many of the families in the area moved while the light station was transformed into Coast Guard barracks, for those who protected the light. In 1970, the Coast Guard abandoned the lighthouse and in 1972 the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association was founded to restore the location and turn the lighthouse into a museum.
Images
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
The kerosene lamp in the first order fixed Fresnel lens was first lit on November 1, 1887, by Keeper William Rowlinski. This new light could be seen 20 miles out to sea. Rowlinski later moved to another lighthouse in South Carolina but once he retired he moved back to Florida and bought a house on the Halifax River right next to the lighthouse in the Mosquito Inlet. The second principal keeper for the lighthouse was Thomas Patrick O'Hagan. O'Hagan moved to the lighthouse station with his wife and the four children he had at the time, they would have seven more children before he moved on to another lighthouse on the Amelia Island. While he served here author Stephen Crane was shipwrecked offshore.
In 1907, a new well was dug and a windmill and a water tank tower were built to provide a reliable water supply. In 1909, the kerosene lamp was replaced with an incandescent oil vapor, or O.I.V. lamp. The Lighthouse Service added bathrooms and indoor plumbing to all the keepers' buildings in 1921. In 1925, under Principal Keeper Charles Leslie Sisson, a new generator was installed in the pump house and electricity was brought into the keepers' homes for the first time. An electric water pump replaced the old windmill. The Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse changed its name for tourism and real estate purposes in 1927, giving it reference to Juan Ponce de Leon, who discovered Florida. In 1933, the lighthouse was finally upgraded and electrified to a 500 watt lamp.
Sources
http://ponceinlet.org/
http://ponceinlet.org/history.cfm