Also picked up several historical markers around the area.
The beautiful two-story, brick
keepers' dwelling and the white, 104-foot tower on St. Simons Island today seem
like the idyllic light station, but such was not always the case. The station
was considered isolated before being linked to the mainland, and one of the
head keepers was murdered on the lighthouse grounds. In addition, stagnant
ponds on the island provided the perfect breeding grounds for disease-carrying
mosquitoes, which led to the death of two men overseeing construction of the
lighthouse.
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Congress appropriated $7,000 on
March 16, 1804 for a lighthouse on Saint Simons Island, and John Couper, owner
of a plantation on the southern end of the island, sold four acres of his land
to the government later that year for a token sum of one dollar. Couper was
anxious that a lighthouse be built on the island to aid commerce in the
Brunswick area.
The original appropriation reverted
to the treasury in 1806, but Congress provided the much larger sum of $19,000
on March 3, 1807 for the project. In April of 1807, Couper's plan of getting a
lighthouse on his property seemed to have worked as a notice appeared in the Savannah
Advertiser soliciting a builder with sufficient skills to erect a
lighthouse on the southern end of St. Simons Island. The plans called for a
lighthouse constructed of brick in the form of an octagon, supported by a stone
foundation and secured by a substantial panel door with iron hinges.
James Gould, newly arrived from New
England, answered the ad and suggested that the tower be constructed of tabby,
a local building material made from a mixture of lime, water, sand and oyster
shells, and that some other minor alterations to the design be made. Gould's
suggestions were accepted, and he was awarded the contract.
Gould used the ruins of Fort
Frederica, which was built on the island in 1736, as a source for the tabby,
and completed the seventy-five-foot tower in late 1810 at a cost of $13,775.
Oil lamps suspended on chains served as the original light source.
With St. Simons Lighthouse finished,
Gould was now out of work, but the following excerpt from a letter exchanged
between two of his sisters reveals his time at the lighthouse was not yet done.
James has been officially appointed Keeper of the Light by
President Madison, at a salary of $400 a year. The appointment came 4 May and
he was, in spite of the small pay, plainly pleased to be trusted with the
keeping of his beloved lighthouse. He appears also proud of the tower, so far,
but what he insists is my discontent, I feel is somehow his own. I simply try
to make him laugh and attempt to understand what it is he really wants to do with
his life once the lighthouse is completed and he has been its keeper long
enough to be satisfied that the lantern and all else is in order.
Apparently Gould was not too
discontented with his life at the lighthouse as he served as keeper for
twenty-seven years.
A residence was evidently not built
with the lighthouse as James Gould was paid $1,700 in 1830 to build a keeper's
dwelling. In 1838, it was noted that the tower's eight-inch reflectors were too
small. This problem was corrected in 1847 when nine lamps with fourteen-inch
reflectors were installed in the lantern room. In 1856, the lighthouse was
outfitted with a third-order Fresnel lens.
When Confederate troops abandoned
the island in 1862, they dynamited the tower and keeper's cottage, so they would
not benefit Union forces.
Following the Civil War, noted
Georgia architect Charles B. Cluskey drew up plans for a new lighthouse and
dwelling on the island for which Congress had appropriated $45,000 on March 2,
1867. In the fall of 1869, a contract for the project was awarded to the lowest
bidder with a completion date around the middle of the following year.
Difficulties in procuring materials and landing them at the site resulted in
the completion date being pushed back to November 1, 1870, but even this date
would prove too ambitious. During the summer months, there was a great deal of
sickness at the site, and the contractor fell ill and died. One of the
contractor's bondsmen stepped in to complete the work, but he also passed away
at the lighthouse.
The surviving bondsman stepped in in
November 1871, when the lighthouse stood at fifty-one feet, and over the next
several months managed to complete the impressive Victorian duplex and 104-foot
tower. The light from a third-order, L. Sautter Fresnel lens was first shown on
September 1, 1872. The lens is a fixed lens, meaning it does not contain any
flash panels and thus produces a steady light, however, there are four flash
panels that revolve around the outside of
the lens producing a bright flash once per minute. Originally, the panels
produced alternating red and white flashes, with intervals of one minute.
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The keepers at the new lighthouse
repeatedly complained about the unhealthy living conditions on the island. The
Lighthouse Board finally took action in 1875 and drained the ponds near the
lighthouse. Seeds of the Eucalyptus globulus tree were also planted at
the station, as the trees were believed to neutralize the noxious gases that
caused malaria. Only later was it learned that the trees helped prevent malaria
by consuming large quantities of water, thus helping to drain the swampy areas
where mosquitoes bred.
On a Sunday morning in March of
1880, Keeper Frederick Osborne and his assistant had an altercation on the
lighthouse grounds, wherein the assistant shot Osborne dead. The assistant was
later acquitted of murder charges, which may have prevented a peaceful rest for
the departed Osborne, whose service was cut short. During Carl Svendsen's
service as keeper, which lasted from 1907 to 1935, he and his wife repeatedly
heard mysterious footfalls, which would send their dog Jink into a frenzy. To
this day, people claim to hear inexplicable footsteps in the tower.
A speaking tube was installed in
1876 to connect the watchroom atop the tower with the dwelling so the relief
keeper could be summoned. Keeper Isaac Peckham was lying down in the watchroom
on the evening of August 31, 1886 when at 9:30 p.m. the Charleston earthquake
shook the station. Keeper Peckhman reported that the accompanying noise
"was like that made by a horse running over a hard road" and that one
of the red flash panels broke. In May 1887, mother nature took another swipe at
the station when lightning struck the dwelling. This prompted the addition of
two new lightning conductors, with improved ground connections, to the
dwelling.
The erection of a light to range
with St. Simons Lighthouse and guide mariners safely into the harbor was
proposed as early as 1837, but Congress didn't provide funds for it until 1893.
The selected site for the beacon had to be obtained through condemnation
proceedings, which delayed the establishment of the range light until May 1895.
A triangular, skeletal tower, made of iron, was used to display a locomotive
light at a focal plane of thirty-seven feet. This structure was destroyed by a
hurricane on September 29, 1896 but was replaced the following month.
In 1890, a brick oil house was
constructed on the lighthouse grounds to store the volatile kerosene, which
replaced the increasingly expensive whale oil as the lamp fuel. The
nine-by-eleven building could hold 450 five-gallon oil cans. Kerosene was in
turn replaced by electricity in 1934, and the station was automated sixteen
years later in 1950. Shortly after automation, the passageway connecting the
tower to the dwelling was removed.
The keepers' dwelling was vacant for
several years until it was leased to Glynn County in 1972 for use as a museum
and visitors' center. After three years of restorative work overseen by the
Coastal Georgia Historical Society, the museum opened to the public. The tower
was opened in 1984 to climbers willing to brave the 129-step spiral staircase.
Under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, ownership of St.
Simons Lighthouse was officially transferred to the Coastal Georgia Historical
Society on May 26, 2004.
Head Keepers: James Gould (1811 –
1837), Lachlan McIntosh (1837 – 1852), Alexander D. McIntosh (1852 – 1855),
John F. Carmon (1855 – 1861), Bradford B. Brunt (1872 – 1874), Frederick
Osborne (1874 – 1880), George W. Ashbell (1880 – 1883), Isaac L. Peckham (1883
– 1892), Joseph Champagne (1892 – 1907), Carl O. Svendsen (1907 – 1935), Arthur
F. Hodge (1936 – 1945), David O’Hagan (1945 - 1953).
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