County of site: Monroe County
Location of site: Loggerhead Key, Dry Tortugas
The Coast Guard Broad Command Pennant was flying but no flags.
This lighthouse is now automated, and when I was there on 2007, it was only manned during the summer months. A list of volunteers, who moved into the house for the summer (three months) and clean and cared for the property.
They couple for this summer arrived on the key just a couple hours after we arrived there. So no flag up yet, and they did invite us to view the house and share ice tea with them.
"To curtail the number of ships being lost, Congress appropriated $35,000 on August 18, 1856 for the establishment of a second, more powerful lighthouse in the Dry Tortugas. The new 150-foot tower would possess a first-order Fresnel lens and stand on Loggerhead Key, three miles west of Garden Key and at the western extreme of the islands. Captain Daniel P. Woodbury, who at the time was overseeing the construction of Garden Key’s Fort Jefferson, was also put in charge of building Dry Tortugas Lighthouse. Following Woodbury’s plans, the conical brick tower would enclose a spiral staircase consisting of 203 granite blocks that lead upwards to the watchroom, on top of which rested the lantern room. Twelve feet below the watchroom, the tower’s brickwork started to flare out to support an exterior walkway encircling the watchroom. The Fresnel lens, supplied by L. Sautter & Company of Paris, France, produced a steady white light and was first illuminated on July 1, 1858.
"The housing for the keepers consisted of a two-story duplex for the principal and an assistant keeper, and a second two-story structure, whose top floor served as living quarters for a second assistant keeper and whose ground floor was used as a communal kitchen. Other structures at the station included a two-story, freestanding brick oil house, and two brick cisterns, which collected the rainwater from the roofs of the two dwellings.
"The two-story keepers’ dwelling burned in 1945 and had to be razed, however, a new one-story, yellow-brick bungalow topped with a hipped roof had been built for the head keeper in 1922-1923 at a cost of $6,498, so housing on the island remained sufficient. The lighthouse was automated in 1987. Today, volunteers stay in the original building that served as a kitchen and dwelling and keep an observant eye on the property. The 1922 bungalow is used by the Coast Guard to house crews during routine maintenance visits to the lighthouse." ~ Lighthouse Friends