FORT JEFFERSON Tortugas Harbor Lighthouse Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida

FORT JEFFERSON Tortugas Harbor Lighthouse Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida Contents ADMINISTRATIVE DATA ...................................................6 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ..........................................10 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION ................................................16 TREATMENT RECOMMENDATIONS ...........................20 APPENDICES APPENDIX A. ORIGINAL DRAWINGS APPENDIX B. SELECT HISTORIC IMAGES APPENDIX C. STRUCTURAL ASSESSMENT APPENDIX D. COST ESTIMATE (UNDER SEPARATE COVER) Tortugas Harbor Lighthouse, 2015 Administrative Data RESOURCE NAME AND NUMBERS LIGHTHOUSE DATA CULTURAL RESOURCE DATA Building Name: Tortugas Harbor Lighthouse Constructed: February-April, 1876 The Lighthouse was first placed on the National Register of Historic Places in Structure No.: HS-01 Original Purpose: Harbor Light, 1976 as a contributing resource of the Fort local navigation LCS ID No.: 000319 Jefferson National Monument district. Active: No Later in 1992, Dry Tortugas National Park RESOURCE LOCATION Decommissioned: 1921 was established by Public Law 102-525 to The Tortugas Harbor Lighthouse is located Construction: Boiler plate iron “preserve and protect for the education, on top of Bastion 6 of Fort Jefferson inspiration and enjoyment of present and Automated: 1912 (Acetylene) on Garden Key, within Dry Tortugas future generations nationally significant National Park (DRTO). The Park is located Focal Plane: 67’ natural, historic, scenic, marine and scientific approximately 67 miles west of Key West Range: 13 miles values in South Florida.” Under 36 CFR 60.1 Florida in the Gulf of Mexico and only (b) (1), historic units of the National Park Original Light: Fourth Order accessible by boat or seaplane. The Park Lens by Henry-LePaute, Service are automatically given National encompasses an area of approximately 100 710 English Candles, Register of Historic Places status by virtue of square miles and contains seven small sand central drum, no their incorporation into the park system. and coral keys (islands) and the surrounding revolution, Moved from Dry Tortugas National Park is currently in shoals and water. Garden Key contains the brick lighthouse on the process of updating its National Register Park’s central cultural feature, Fort Jefferson. Parade Ground. documentation. The Fort is occupied by Park staff and is the center of Park operations. The visiting public Current Light: None generally travels to the Park on a commercial Current Daymark: Black ferry service operated out of Key West. U.S.C.G. District: 7th Location: Bastion 6 stair tower Fort Jefferson, Garden Key, Dry Tortugas National Park Coordinates: 24° 37’ 46” N Latitude 82° 52’ 50” W Longitude County: Monroe State: Florida 6 DRY TORTUGAS NATIONAL PARK 4 3 5 Fort Jefferson 2 6 1 Tortugas Harbor Lighthouse Tortugas Harbor TORTUGAS HARBOR LIGHTHOUSE 7 SIGNIFICANCE Significance as National. The nomination RELATED STUDIES The Tortugas Harbor Lighthouse is included does not specify a Period of Significance, Bearss, Edwin C., Fort Jefferson National in the list of resources contributing to the however in March 2004, a “Record of Monument, Historic Structure Report, significance of the Fort Jefferson National Decision” was issued establishing the Period Historical Data Section, 1983. of Significance for the Fort and its associated Monument in its National Register of Historic Kenneth Smith Architects Inc., and Bender resources as spanning from 1846 to 1876. Places Nomination Form approved in & Associates Architects P.A. for the State February 1976. The nomination form states of The recently completed Draft Foundation of Florida Department of State, Division the lighthouse: Document for the Park further reinforces of Historical Resources and Department In 1876 this structure replaced the the issue of the lighthouse’s significance by of Community Affairs, Florida Coastal original 1825 lighthouse located on including the statement: Management Program, Florida Lighthouse the parade ground. The light was At the nautical crossroads of the Gulf Study 2002. mainly used as a beacon, since of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean and the Lord Aeck Sargent Architects. Fort Jefferson the much stronger light on nearby Caribbean Sea, the Dry Tortugas have National Monument, Historic Structure Loggerhead Key more adequately a rich maritime heritage that includes Report Amendment, 2004. guided ships around the treacherous one of the greatest concentrations of Manucy, Albert, A Constructional History of reefs. The lighthouse stands 37 feet shipwrecks in North America as well Fort Jefferson , 1846 - 1864, National Park above the terreplein, or 82 feet from as historic navigational aids such Service, 1981. ground level. The iron sides form a as the Dry Tortugas Light Station on hexagon built over the stairway of the Loggerhead Key and the Garden Key Morrison, George T., Phillips, John Wesley southeastern bastion. An observation Harbor Light. and Revised by Richard Rasp. National deck with railing circumvents the Register of Historic Places Inventory- lighthouse about halfway up the Nomination Form for Fort Jefferson tower. On the top, a windowed room National Monument, February, 1976. gives an unhindered view of the Tuckerbrook Conservation and Resurgence fort and surrounding waters. Plans Engineering and Preservation are underway to rehabilitate the Inc., Tortugas Harbor Light, Fort deteriorating lighthouse. Jefferson, Dry Tortugas National The nomination lists the lighthouse along Park (DRTO), Preliminary Structural with the fort and all of its associated Condition Assessment and Treatment resources as possessing “Third Order” Recommendations, 2nd DRAFT Report: Significance (a designation used at the February, 2016. time for resources “significant primarily in the presentation and interpretation of the history of a community or locality”). However the certification language in Section 12 of the Nomination establishes the Level of 8 DRY TORTUGAS NATIONAL PARK 2015 Image of Lighthouse from Parade Ground. TORTUGAS HARBOR LIGHTHOUSE 9 Historical Background The first lighthouse on Garden Key, the still maintained a fort keeper and ordinance to remain white) were laid out, and in April second largest of several small sand islands sergeant on site. 1893 they were installed. In 1898, the Annual that make up the Dry Tortugas, was lit on In September of 1875, a hurricane severely Report notes that a set of three improved July 4, 1826. Though planning for a massive damaged the lighthouses on Garden Key and fourth order lamps was furnished. third system fortification to be built on Garden Loggerhead Key. Considering the Garden In the 1880s Fort Jefferson was used as a Key had begun in 1827, the 65-foot tall, brick Key Lighthouse’s navigational failings and quarantine station for a smallpox outbreak. In lighthouse’s only company for two decades the cost to repair the hurricane damage, the 1890s, the military occupied the fort again was a small light keeper’s house located plans were made to construct a new iron during the Spanish-American War, using it adjacent to the tower. lighthouse on top of the fort, on what was mostly as a staging area. On April 7, 1900, Appropriations for the fort were finally then called Bastion C, rather than repair Dry Tortugas was transferred officially to the approved in 1844 and construction began the existing brick lighthouse in the parade Navy Department, and on April 6, 1908, it was two years later. The nearly half-mile grounds. Five thousand dollars was allocated transferred to the Department of Agriculture perimeter walls rose slowly due to the for the new lighthouse on March 3, 1875. as a wildlife refuge. logistical, technical, and financial challenges The primary purpose of the new lighthouse The 1911 Annual Report of the Lighthouse associated with the fort’s size and location. was to serve as an aid to navigation for the Service reported that a hurricane in October By 1861, what would later be called Fort island’s harbor traffic because the much taller of 1910 did “considerable damage to aids Jefferson, encompassed most of Garden Key, First Order lighthouse on Loggerhead Key to navigation” in Florida, Georgia, and and enclosed the existing lighthouse and provided adequate navigational aid to ships South Carolina. It does not mention specific keeper’s quarters within the parade ground. traveling to and from the Gulf of Mexico. damage to the Tortugas Harbor light. In 1857, construction of a new lighthouse Drawings for the new lighthouse were sent to Correspondence from 1912 addresses a began on Loggerhead Key, the largest island the Light House Board on January 10, 1876 change in the characteristic of the Tortugas in the Dry Tortugas, located approximately and construction began the following month. Harbor Light from a fixed to a flashing two and a half nautical miles west of Garden It was completed on April 4 of the same pattern, establishing that the pattern would Key. The Loggerhead Key lighthouse was year. The hexagonal tower of plate iron, with be 0.4 seconds lit with 1.6 seconds eclipsed. meant to resolve complaints against the gallery and cylindrical parapet, was finished In January of 1912 the reconstructed Garden Key lighthouse’s navigational on the interior with wood. Keeper’s dwelling inside the parade ground insufficiencies; the Garden Key lighthouse The light from the old lighthouse was moved burned, along with the barracks and was difficult to see in the haze that was to the new one on April 5, 1876 and the associated kitchens. Letters and

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