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Legacy Program Spotlight: Rosie Sebastiano
As a loving tribute to mothers everywhere, our May's Legacy Program spotlight focuses on the legacy of Rosie Sebastiano. Her children have chosen to celebrate her life with a commemorative brick here at the St Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum. Since the Museum was Rosie’s “happy place,” her children know that they can visit and remember her here. We appreciate that they shared their unique story with us: Now we [...]
Where Were You On May 22, 1993?
On th at day, our 1st order Fresnel lens was put back into service after being repaired. In 1986, a vandal shot the lens at the top of the Lighthouse tower damaging 19 of the prisms. Beginning in 1980, the Junior Service League led a massive community effort to restore the St. Augustine Light Station. The restoration of the Keepers’ House was completed in 1990 after a disastrous fire in 1970. [...]
Return to the French Frigate, Junon
by Chuck Meide I was just 26, a bright-eyed graduate student at Florida State University, and it was the archaeological project of a lifetime. My friend and colleague David Johnson was a grad student at Texas A&M University. He’d taken a phone call from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, an island nation in the extreme southeast of the Caribbean. Better known now, but not then, as the scenic island filmed [...]
Member Spotlight: Kelli McGreevy and Rick Poehlman
Each month we feature a Member Spotlight in our member newsletter giving our members a chance to share why the Museum is important to them and why they value their membership. This month we recognize Kelli McGreevy and Rick Poehlman. Members since 2021, Rick and Kelli were married on the front lawn of the Museum in December 2020! Kelli has been visiting the Lighthouse since she was a child while [...]
Historical Preservation: Coastal Lookout Barracks Roof Completed!
The Coastal Barracks recently received a new cypress shingled roof. The funding for the project came from the Gene Oakes Grant Program of the Florida Lighthouse Association (FLA). The FLA is a non-profit organization that provides grants to support historic preservation, restoration and educational programs at Florida's light stations. The Coastal Lookout Building was built in 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The building served as the barracks [...]
Collections on the Move!
Last year, the Museum purchased property as part of an organizational initiative to consolidate operations. The new property offers the Museum a permanent space to expand as well as a new home for our collection of documents and artifacts. The location also means that the building is safer from storms and hurricanes. Since the end of 2022, the Collections and Conservation teams have been working diligently to pack up and [...]
Junior Service League’s Legacy Remains
In 1970, a suspicious fire gutted the abandoned Keepers’ House located at the St. Augustine Light Station. The following year, St. Johns County purchased the property from the United States Coast Guard with the intention of demolishing the burned-out shell of the building. Enter the Junior Service League of St. Augustine and the idea of restoring the Keepers’ House as a museum and community center. The women of the JSL [...]
Muskets Added to Wrecked! Exhibit
The Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program (LAMP) Conservation team installed a new case in the Wrecked! Exhibit. This new case replaces the Star Waters mannequin and features one of the muskets recovered from the Storm Wreck, the American Revolution-era shipwreck excavated in 2009. Other artifacts associated with the musket including flintlock, flint, shot and even some paper wadding are also featured. The team has recently installed a second musket in the [...]
Pittee Descendants Visit the Museum
On Friday, February 10, 2023, the Museum welcomed four descendants of Hezekiah Pittee, the superintendent over the construction of the St. Augustine Lighthouse tower between 1871 and 1874. The descendants made the trip from Tampa for a family member's funeral here and reached out to the Museum. The descendants (pictured above) sat down with Jason Titcomb, Chief Curator; Lee Capitano, Retail and Finance Director; and Rick Cain, Museum Operations [...]
HAM – Our Last Line of Communication
International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend (ILLW) 2022 We’ve probably all seen the recent news of the severe flooding in Eastern Kentucky or the wildfires in California. In each case, as in all disaster scenarios, homes and lives are destroyed, and communication breaks down. It’s tough to call for help when the power is out, and the internet and cellular service are down. Since ancient times, lighthouses served as physical signals of [...]
Written in History
(Photo credit: Mark Krancer) Memorial Park is a historic city park located on the north side of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. Following World War I, the Rotary Club of Jacksonville created the park to commemorate the Floridians who died in WWI, with a large copper statue serving as a memorial. At the statue’s base, a time capsule was interred on December 24, 1924, containing a scroll with [...]
The Tragedy of the U.S.S. Indianapolis
In August of 1939, Albert Einstein and other scientists sent a letter to then U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt warning of a Nazi program that could develop a nuclear bomb. In response to this threat, Roosevelt authorized the Manhattan Project to proceed under the guidance of General Leslie Groves, the development of America's first nuclear weapon. President Roosevelt died on April 12th of 1945, and Harry Truman assumed his presidency, during [...]
A Letter to Santa from the St. Augustine Lighthouse
This December, the St. Augustine Record republished a series of Letters to Santa printed in the St. Augustine Evening Record from December 1921. Peter Willott, a reporter for the Record, worked with the staff at the St. Augustine Historical Society's Research Library to gather these letters. One of the letters came from little Eloise Malloy, the only daughter of Clarence and Agnes Malloy. Clarence served as the First Assistant Keeper [...]
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo – From Florida
In the months immediately following the December 7th attack in 1941 on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, American resolve was codified into a call for action. Something had to be done quickly to send a message to Imperial Japan that they were not out of our reach. Payback was coming. In this photo is what appears to be a Japanese Aichi D3A1 Dive Bomber taking up an [...]
Heritage Boatworks Boat Drawing
The Heritage Boatworks boat drawing is a tradition held on Luminary Night every year. This year, the event will take place on first Wednesday in December.Heritage Boatworks is a group of volunteers dedicated to keeping the art and skill of wooden boatbuilding alive in St. Augustine.The St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum will select two lucky winners at the annual Luminary Night event. Each winner will receive one of these [...]