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Only eight years before he commanded Union forces to victory at the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, George G. Meade was building and remodeling lighthouses in south Florida.
One of his projects was to increase the height of Cape Florida Lighthouse from 65 feet to 100 feet and to replace the lighthouse’s light with a more powerful one. The work was completed in 1855.
Located a short drive from downtown Miami on Key Biscayne, the Cape Florida Lighthouse provided a key landmark for shipping heading south into the treacherous reefs of the Florida Keys. Meade’s design for the lantern room at the top of the Cape Florida Lighthouse used the latest scientific principles to produce the strongest possible light. Diagonal window frames ensured that the light would be equally distributed in all directions. The use of flat triangular glass would simplify repairs while allowing the light to go through the glass at a 90-degree angle . . . the most efficient way to ensure the brightest possible light.
In addition to the new lantern room, the lighthouse’s reflector system of lights was replaced by a state of the art (for the time) 2nd order Fresnel lens showing a fixed (not flashing) light. The light was produced by a multi-wick lamp that burned whale oil.
Fast forward 169 years, and the lantern room has been replaced at least twice, the tower survived a Civil War attack and a direct hit from 1992’s Hurricane Andrew, but fortunately it retains its 1855 appearance while serving as a cornerstone of Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. The lighthouse is a U.S. Coast Guard approved private aid to navigation that displays a flashing white light from a modern plastic lens.
The Cape Florida Lighthouse was extensively restored in 1996, at which time new Plexiglas windows were installed in the top of the tower. Unfortunately, after almost 30 years of Florida sunshine, storms and windblown sand, the Plexiglas has become clouded and brittle, more closely resembling frosted glass than the high-quality glass that was historically present.
Now, the Florida Lighthouse Association and the Florida Keys Reef Lights Foundation (both 501c non-profit organizations) are pleased to announce that they have approved grants to the Friends of Cape Florida, the Citizen Support Organization (CSO) for Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, to fund the replacement of the windows at the top of historic lighthouse. The Florida Lighthouse Association grant is for $200,000 and the Florida Keys Reef Lights Foundation grant is for $32,000.
The Florida Lighthouse Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserve, restore, protect and promote Florida’s lighthouses. One source of their income is through the Gene Oaks “Visit Our Lights” Florida license plate program at VisitOurLights.org. Since the license plate program began in 2005 it has provided more than $1.59 million in funds to 20 different Florida lighthouses. The Florida Keys Reef Lights Foundation was established to save and preserve south Florida’s Reef lighthouses. Now that each of those lighthouses (except Fowey Rocks Light which is owned by the National Park Service) are privately owned, it is closing and using its funds to support the glass replacement at Cape Florida Lighthouse. The lighthouse is owned and administered by Florida State Parks.
According to Neil Hurley, one of the volunteer lead coordinators, “Our project will replace the 96 clouded Plexiglas window panes at the top of the lighthouse with laminated glass windows that meet local and National Park Service National Lighthouse Preservation Handbook standards. Upon completion of the project, visitors to the lighthouse will once again be able to enjoy the scenic views comparable to those enjoyed by George Meade soon after he completed raising the lighthouse to its current height in 1855.”
“Our goal is to have the work completed before December 2025, which is the 200th anniversary of lighting Cape Florida Lighthouse.”
This story appeared in the
Mar/Apr 2024 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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