Galveston Jetty Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Construction on the jetties would continue into the twentieth century, but in the meantime temporary measures were taken to mark the growing, man-made obstacles. First in 1883, a simple iron pole daymark was placed near the end of the south jetty. The following year, this was replaced with a more visible, 26-foot iron spindle topped by an iron sphere.

In 1894, the Lighthouse Board began drawing up plans for a substantial lighthouse to mark the jetties and petitioning Congress for the necessary funds. The original design was based on that used for the Rebecca Shoal Lighthouse in Florida and called for a wood-framed structure mounted on iron piles. However, when the powerful hurricane of 1900 destroyed a good portion of the buildings in Galveston, the plans were altered to provide a more stout superstructure built of iron and cement.

In 1904, with work on the jetties being finished, the firm of MacPherson, Willard and Company of Bordentown, New Jersey was contracted to supply the foundation piles for the Galveston Jetty Lighthouse. The following spring, fifty-three of the huge capping stones used in constructing the jetties were removed to allow nine piles to be driven into the seabed near the end of the southern jetty. Once the piles were set, rocks were placed around them to rebuild that portion of the jetty.

A lack of funds and a 1909 hurricane delayed the construction of the cylindrical, five-story superstructure. After the storm, the Lighthouse Board further delayed the project over concern for the planned extension of the jetties. Finally, late in 1912, the decision was made to proceed with construction atop the piles that had been set in place over seven years earlier, even though the lighthouse would now be located almost a thousand feet from the end of the jetty. Champion Iron Company of Kenton, Ohio supplied the ironwork for the lighthouse, and work on the site began in October of 1914.

The platform on which the lighthouse was built hovered forty-two feet above the gulf waters. The bottom floor of the lighthouse contained the oil room and engine room. The second floor consisted of a kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom for the keepers, and two additional bedrooms were located in the third story. The diameter of the bottom three levels was twenty-three feet, four inches, while the upper two levels, the watchroom and lantern room, were somewhat smaller. The first layer of stucco applied to the structure contained cow hair that served as a bonding agent, while the outer layer included waterproofing material.

When the hurricane of 1915 struck the Galveston area, the tower was roughly fifty percent complete. The violent storm damaged the support piles and washed away the construction wharf, but the upper portion of the lighthouse required only minor repairs. After the hurricane, the lower portion of the support piles was encased in cement to provide additional support and protection.

Lens from Galveston Jetty Lighthouse

A third-order Fresnel lens, manufactured by the Parisian firm of Henry Lepaute, arrived for installation in the tower during the latter part of 1917. Before making its way to Texas, the lens had been exhibited by the Lighthouse Service in San Francisco as part of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition. Ruby-colored panels of glass were placed over every other bull's-eye to produce a distinctive characteristic of alternating red and white flashes. An oil vapor lamp was first used inside the lens to produce a light with an intensity of 23,000 candlepower. Later, a 1,000 watt bulb was installed, raising the intensity to 230,000 candlepower and allowing the light to be seen from a distance of twenty miles.

The lighthouse was finished by June of 1918, but a coastal blackout imposed by the military during World War I, delayed its activation. Finally, on November 12, 1918, one day after Germany’s surrender and after fourteen years of on-and-off construction, the lamp was lit for the first time.

Over the years, various upgrades were made at the station. Originally equipped with only a mechanically struck fog bell, the station received a compressed air diaphone in 1921. A radio beacon was added to the station in 1925 to serve as an additional aid to mariners navigating in reduced visibility. In 1949, additional pilings were driven adjacent to the tower to support a new, one-story keepers’ dwelling.

Due to its isolation, the Galveston Jetty Lighthouse was home to just the keepers needed to watch over the light and other equipment. Visits by families were occasionally authorized, including a Christmastime stay by the wife and three children of Keeper E. K. Wakefield in 1931. When the family wanted to make a return visit in the summer of 1934, the request was denied as the Wakefields now had a fourth child, and the station "was not considered safe for an infant of 18 months."

The lighthouse was linked to commercial electricity in 1969, freeing the keepers from the task of minding the generators and leading to the automation of the station in 1972. In the early 1980s, modern lights were built just off the ends of the jetties, and the old jetty light was deactivated. Soon thereafter, the Fresnel lens was donated to the Galveston County Historical Museum, where it serves as the museum’s premier artifact.

The top picture at left was taken by Daniel McCaskill while on a trek to the lighthouse with his high school friends in 1981 or 1982. The boys climbed to the top of the lighthouse and found that the lantern room was empty at that time.

A violent storm struck the lighthouse on May 2, 2000, and the iron pilings, weakened by years of rust, gave way toppling the lighthouse into the water. Just six months before the storm hit, a local businessman had proposed moving the Galveston Jetty Lighthouse to Galveston Island State Park and turning it into a museum.

On November 8, 2006 the lantern room, which had previously been rescued from the wreck of the Galveston Jetty Lighthouse, was dedicated as part of Beacon Square, a new "front door" for Galveston College whose vision is “A Beacon of Light Guiding Lifelong Learning.”

References

1. Lighthouses of Texas, T. Lindsay Baker, 2001.
2. Lighthouses, Lightships, and the Gulf of Mexico, David Cipra, 1997.