Marblehead Lighthouse

About this property

Marblehead Lighthouse in Marblehead, Ohio, United States, is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the American side of the Great Lakes. It has guided sailors safely along the rocky shores of Marblehead Peninsula since 1822, and is an active aid to navigation. In 1819, the fifteenth U. S. Congress recognized the need for navigational aids along the Great Lakes and set aside $5,000 for the construction of a light tower at the entrance to Sandusky Bay. In 1821, contractor William Kelly (assisted by local-area residents Amos Fenn and Wm.B. Smith) built the 50-foot (15 m) tower of native limestone on the tip of the Marblehead Peninsula. The base of the tower is 25 feet (7.6 m) in diameter, with walls 5 feet (1.5 m) thick. It narrows to 12 feet (3.7 m) at the top, with 2-foot (0.61 m) thick walls. Before it was automated, fifteen lighthouse keepers (two of whom were women) in succession tended the beacon. The first keeper was Benajah Wolcott, a Revolutionary War veteran and one of the first settlers on the peninsula (although from 1819 to 1821, resided in the City of Sandusky.). After the completion of the lighthouse and also an adjacent stone "keeper's house" in 1821, Wolcott and his family moved into that official "keeper's house". Each night, he lit the wicks of the 13 whale oil lamps that were the original light fixture (composed of multiple metal reflectors, every sixteen inches—406 mm—in diameter, which helped project the light across the lake). Other duties of the lighthouse keeper included compiling a log of passing ships, noting the weather conditions, and organizing rescue efforts. After Wolcott died in 1832, his wife, Rachel, took over these duties (and afterward, her final husband, Jeremiah VanBenschoter, took over those same duties). In 1858, the whale oil lamps were replaced by the light from a single kerosene lantern magnified by a Fresnel lens; this specialized, curved glass lens created a highly visible, fixed white light. In 1880, the original 1821 stone keeper's-house (adjacent to the lighthouse) was replaced with the present large wood-frame Keeper's House. [ Note: these structures should not be confused with the (so-called) "Keepers' House"/Wolcott House, which is approx.3 miles (4.8 km) distant from the lighthouse.] A lifesaving station was built one-half mile (800 m) west of the lighthouse in 1876. Lucien Clemons, who with his two brothers saved two sailors from a shipwreck off the peninsula on May 1, 1875, was named the first commander. The turn of the century ushered in new technology as well as structural changes including the addition of another 15 feet (4.6 m) to the tower's height. A clock-like mechanism was installed to rotate the lantern, creating the appearance of a brilliant flash of light every 10 seconds. This system required that the lighthouse keeper crank the weights every three hours through the night to keep the lantern turning. An improved Fresnel lens with prism surfaces created an even more brilliant beacon.

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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.

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