Many nations have benefited from the protection provided by the arching sand bar located along Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie shoreline, and the uniqueness of the peninsula, name Presque Isle or “almost an island” by the French, does make one wonder about its origins.

The present white tower with its distinctive black band that is mounted on the outer end of the north pier forming the entrance to Presque Isle Bay and Erie Harbor has been guiding mariners since 1857. Known as the Presque Isle North Pierhead Lighthouse or Erie Harbor Pierhead Light, the beacon has a design that is unique among surviving U.S. lighthouses. The lighthouse exhibited a fixed red light until 1995, when its fourth-order Fresnel lens was removed, and a modern flashing red light was installed in its place. The classic lens can now be seen at the Erie Maritime Museum.

An inspection report of 1837 noted that Erie Harbor was served by a lighthouse and a beacon. The lighthouse was the Erie Land Lighthouse, which had been erected on a bluff overlooking the harbor in 1818, and the beacon had been placed on a pier at the harbor entrance in 1830. The report indicated that the beacon was “so situated that it cannot be seen by vessels running down the lake until they are very close to it,” and thus recommended that vessels use the lighthouse to gain the upper entrance to the harbor and then follow the beacon light.

In 1854, the beacon light received a “catadioptric apparatus of the sixth order, illuminating an arc of 270°,” which replaced the former illuminant that had be described as being “very defective.” The beacon light and its new sixth-order lens were destroyed the following year, when a vessel entering the harbor during a gale struck the tower. A lens lantern suspended from a gallows frame was displayed on the pier until a replacement tower could be built.

An itemized cost sheet from 1855 records that $1,731 was needed for the labor and materials to build up a new 28 by 33 foot pierhead at Erie, Pennsylvania from two feet below the water to seven feet above. $939 was the estimated cost for plates, bolts, braces, stairs and railing to construct a two-story, cast-iron tower, while $432 was the expected cost for the lantern. Painting was to run $215, freight $100, superintendence and labor for the tower and lantern another $900. After adding 10% for contingenices and $502 for a sixth-order Fresnel lens, the total cost for a new pierhead and beacon was an estimated $5,250.

The new Presque Isle North Pierhead Lighthouse commenced operation in 1857. The tower was relocated to its present location in 1940 at which time it was outfitted with its present heavy steel plates. A string of fifteen keepers, starting with Samuel S. Foster in 1833 and ending with Robert Allen, who started his service in 1910, are known to have served at the light. The keeper’s dwelling used for the lighthouse for at least part of this time can be seen at the Coast Guard Station near the Presque Isle North Pier.

Photo Gallery: 1

References

1. Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board, various years.
2. Seaway Trail Lighthouses, James Tinney and Mary Burdette-Watkins, 2000.

Scenic boat tours of Presque Isle are offered during the summer months. The tours give you the chance to view the three Erie-area lighthouses from the water.

The fourth-order Fresnel lens used in the Presque Isle North Pierhead Lighthouse is on display at the Erie Maritime Museum.