Presque Isle Lighthouses (8/1/2026)

Saturday, August 1, 2026

NB: We are investigating what is happening to the photographs...
Today we used our Tyler Arboretum Memberships to view the Presque Isle Lighthouses in Erie, PA.

Presque Isle Lighthouse (1872-1873, in
1896 another 17' was added to the tower)

The attached lighthouse keeper's home is
maintained in the era of the 1920s; kitchen

1929 Atwater Kent model 67 console radio

Fourth-order Fresnel lens

Originally using whale oil to light the lamps,
kerosene began to be used in the late 1890s;
the lighthouse keeper would fill enough
lamps to be used during the night and
stored them in a separate oil room

We climbed the 78 steps of the circular
staircase (even though the tower is square);
here we are looking down the steps

The view down on the Welcome Center and Gift Shop
(originally a garage when the keeper's house was
used by state park staff c 1944-2014)

View north over Lake Erie, unusually calm today; note
the groin (stone "island") that is one of 55, which
create a segmented breakwater to control erosion

Although electrified in the 1920s, the light is now fully
automated (since 1962) and is maintained by the Coast
Guard (since the 1940s) as a working aid to navigation

The second floor of the lighthouse keeper's
house: Clearing Out the Attic

The bedroom illustrates the morning routine:

Wash up at the wash stand using a pitcher of water
and a wash bowl

Empty the chamber pot in the outhouse

And refill the oil lamp

Back downstairs for the model buildings:
Fog Signal Station (1899) that used to
be located near the North Pier Light

North Pier Light at the far eastern end of
Presque Isle guided boats into a narrow
channel to Presque Isle Bay; originally made
of wood in 1840, it was destroyed when a
schooner crashed into it during a gale; the pier
was extended in 1858 with a new lighthouse
made of wrought-iron; extended again in 1883
and in 1891, causing the lighthouse to be moved;
electrification in 1924 and final extension in 1940
when the lighthouse was encased in steel panels

Erie Land Lighthouse was the first lighthouse
commissioned along the Great Lakes in 1818; in 1857
a brick tower replaced the original wooden structure,
but on a poor foundation; in 1867 a Berea sandstone
structure was built 200' east of the original; it is no
longer an active aid to navigation

Misery Bay Boathouse and Dock (1873), and 1872 stone pier;
before roads, the lighthouse keeper kept a rowboat to go
to the mainland for supplies or take children to school;
the stone pier was where materials were delivered to
build the Presque Isle lighthouse and keeper's house

Presque Isle Lighthouse (1872-1873, tower addition in 1896)

Lighthouse keeper's uniform jacket

United States Lighthouse Society pin

Sand sculpture (7/24/2026, by Todd Pangborn)
from the Sand Jam! in Presque Isle State Park,
 sponsored by Marquette Savings Bank

A huge pile of sand obscured our view of the North Pier Light,
but it is ready to nourish Presque Isle beaches

Gulls stand guard on the sand pile

North Pier and Light

Steel-paneled North Pier Light

Back in the 1890s, people who could not afford homes
built houseboats all around Presque Isle; in 1937
government regulations were made to limit the number
to 24 houseboats and all are located in Horseshoe Pond

Perry Monument (1926) honors Commodore
Oliver Hazard Perry, a naval war hero who
defeated the British at the Battle of Lake Erie
during the War of 1812; six of Perry's eleven
ships were built near the mainland and
Perry and his fleet spent two winters here

Erie Land Lighthouse (1867)

Erie Land Lighthouse Keeper's Home (1858)