Presenting Enlightened! A New St. Augustine Lighthouse Educational Program Have you ever wondered about the history and science behind the St. Augustine Lighthouse? Well, wonder no more! We are going to take you along on an exploration of all the amazing things we do here at the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum in our new YouTube series, Enlightened! Enlightened is a way for us to share more with you -- more stories, more history, [...]
While waiting for the new conservation building to begin construction, the staff has been cleaning up around the old and new work sites. In the process, Starr found something pretty interesting. She was sweeping up in front of the World War 2 era garage and noticed a number of markings in the concrete. The markings are all last names and dates they were written in the concrete. So far we can read: Muller, Warren, French [...]
In this blog post we are taking a closer look at an artifact recovered from archaeological investigations at the Lighthouse in 1996. The small object pictured is a domed brass button with the letter G, A and R artistically embossed on the surface. The letter GAR refers to the Grand Army of the Republic. Front face of the GAR button. For those unfamiliar with this organization GAR was founded in Illinois, 1866 by [...]
Lighthouses conjure up romantic images of windswept shorelines and the intrepid keepers who maintained the light through the night. However, by the mid-20th century, technology conspired to eliminate the light keepers’ responsibilities. Electric bulbs replaced the glow of oil lanterns; electric motors made the clockwork mechanism that turned the lens obsolete. Photocells, like the kind you find on the tops of streetlights around the country, now turned the light on and off. And in 1955, [...]
Located in New Jersey, at the mouth of New York Harbor, the Sandy Hook Lighthouse was visible to immigrants on their way to Ellis Island (courtesy of the Library of Congress). The connection between lighthouses and immigrants to the United States is inescapable. Dotting the coastline, the bright beacons were often the first sight of land for many people hoping to find opportunity and freedom in a new land. For some of these immigrants, [...]
The “Old Spanish Watchtower” after 1824 Historically, the list of known lighthouse keepers for the St. Augustine Lighthouse has begun with Juan Andreu in 1824, when the United States took over the Florida territory and converted an old watchtower into a US lighthouse. Juan Andreu became light keeper at that time and served until 1845. However, research has revealed two new names to add to the beginning of the list, before even Juan [...]
Constance Fenimore Woolson, an accomplished American writer, spent winters in St. Augustine with her ailing mother from 1873 to 1879. She wove her experiences into her writing, setting several fictional stories and poems in the streets and waterways of the town. She published one such story, aptly titled “The Ancient City,” in Volumes 50 (December 1874) and 51 (January 1875) of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. Her experiences coincided with the recent completion of, what was [...]
The Old Spanish Watchtower The Old Spanish Watchtower, manned by Menorcan keepers for most of its history (Photo Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida) Florida’s territorial period began in the 1820s with the ratification of the Adams-Onís Treaty, which transferred the former Spanish colony to the United States. Though the newly acquired territory did not become a state until 1845, the U.S. government immediately set to work extending the young nation’s network of [...]
This next installment in our series on lighthouse technology focuses on the cistern the lighthouse keepers used to collect rain and provide water for cooking, cleaning, and drinking. Click the link below to read previous post in the series: Fresnel Lens Clockwork Mechanism Illuminants Keeping a lighthouse operational required technology we rarely use today: oil lanterns, clockwork mechanisms, and more. Living at a lighthouse, often isolated from towns and lacking indoor plumbing or electricity, lighthouse [...]
This next installment in our series on lighthouse technology focuses on the illuminants lighthouses have used, especially those used at the St. Augustine Lighthouse in it history. Click the link below to read previous post in the series: Lighthouse Technology: Fresnel Lens Lighthouse Technology: Clockwork Mechanism Lighthouse Illumination This US Lighthouse Establishment 100 gallon oil butt sits in the oil room of the St. Augustine Lighthouse. Historically, lighthouses have served as a reflection [...]
