Hillsboro Inlet Light Station

About this property

Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on the north side of Hillsboro Inlet, midway between Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton, in Hillsboro Beach, Florida. The light marks the northern limit of the Florida Reef, an underwater coral formation on the lower east coast of the state. Hillsboro Point was designated as hazardous for the safe navigation of ships in 1855 and federal designation was sought. A request for a lighthouse at the inlet was first made in 1884. The request was repeated yearly and rejected 17 times. In 1901, the United States Lighthouse Board persuaded Congress to authorize the construction of a lighthouse in the dark area between Jupiter Inlet Light and Fowey Rocks Light. The official order approved on February 12, 1901, called for a "first-order light at or near Hillsboro Point...at a cost not to exceed $90,000." No appropriation of funds was made in 1901 and in 1902 $45,000 was appropriated. The full funding to build the lighthouse was appropriated on March 3, 1903. Initially a site on the south side of the inlet was selected, however it was not feasible, so a site on the north of the inlet was chosen. The owner of the property did not want to sell at first but after beginning condemnation proceedings, an agreement to purchase the land was reached. The 3 acre (1.2 ha) parcel was purchased for $150 from Elnathan T. Field and Mary W. Osborn of Middleton, New Jersey who had bought the land for 70 cents an acre (0.4 ha) from the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund. Soon after the light was operational unexplained reports of fires in the Everglades began to come in. The cause was the lens, when stopped in the morning at just the right position, it would focus the sunlight west towards the wetlands. A landward baffle was installed. This also shielded nearby residents from the bright light at night. Lightkeepers would assist shipwrecks using three 12 to 20 horsepower gas boats. The wives of the lighthouse keepers would make sea grape jelly to trade for pickled vegetables from local farmers. Four Coast Guard signalmen were stationed at the lighthouse in World War I barracked in one of the storehouses. During the 1926 Miami hurricane J.B. Isler stood a 32-hour watch, keeping the light burning while fearing the lighthouse would fall. It stood but 20 feet (6.1 m) of sand was washed out from under it, according to Mary Ella Knight Voss, daughter of a prior lightkeeper. The storm also damaged the dwellings and carried away the boathouse and wharf. Isler's son George and daughter Ruth, born in the keeper's house, were the first children of record born at the Hillsboro Inlet.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Broward County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Broward County.

More historic places in Florida

Browse all historic places in Florida.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Florida history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.