Situated on a twenty-foot bluff, the current square tower and attached dwelling is the second lighthouse to serve Dunkirk. Walter Smith, an influential citizen of Dunkirk, donated land on Point Gratiot for the original lighthouse, which was completed in 1826 with Jesse Peck having served as the contractor. Bricks, fashioned out of clay from a nearby lagoon, were furnished by Sampson Alton, and local blacksmith Adam Fink, whose shop was located at Central Avenue and Third Street, contributed the lantern.

Walter Smith entered into a ten-year deal with the Federal Government to provide a keeper and supplies for the station and attempted to light the beacon with natural gas. While this worked for a time at nearby Barcelona Lighthouse, it is believed that no other navigational aid in the world ever successfully employed natural gas. The problem at Dunkirk was that the source of the fuel, located two miles away at Fredonia, was 150 feet higher in elevation, and the lighter-than-air gas would not descend more than halfway along the wooden pipeline made to transport the gas. By necessity, a lamp and reflector system fueled by whale oil was used instead at the lighthouse.

The Dunkirk Lighthouse was temporarily discontinued in 1838 when it was thought that a recently erected pier-head beacon at the harbor's entrance would be sufficient for navigation. This measure was quickly questioned as the Dunkirk Lighthouse was the most conspicuous lighthouse on Lake Erie's south shore and when paired with the harbor beacon formed a “range for running a most difficult part of the channel” leading to the harbor. Although the pier-head beacon was certainly needed for entering the harbor in foul weather, a report stated that it “would require an elevation of one hundred and twenty-five feet to overtop the bluff point on the northwest,” where the Dunkirk Lighthouse stood. The mistake was soon corrected, and the Dunkirk Lighthouse was reactivated.

In 1857, the lighthouse received a new lantern and a third-order Fresnel lens manufactured in Paris by Henry Le Paute. The 1868 Annual Report of the Light House Board noted that the Dunkirk station was in poor condition. “The keeper’s dwelling leaks and the plastering is out of order. The roof leaks and the sills of the covered way which connects the dwelling with the tower are rotten. The main tower is cracked, and the fence enclosing a portion of the grounds is of indifferent quality. The beacon tower is decayed and leaks.” This situation was soon rectified as the tower was repointed and whitewashed, and the keeper's dwelling was “refloored, reshingled, re- plastered, and painted.” By 1874, however, the tower was “in a very precarious condition,” and it was reported that “large sections of the outer shell may fall off at any moment, thereby endangering not only the whole tower, but also the dwelling and its tenants.” An urgent request for $15,000 to rebuild the lighthouse was granted in March of 1875, and in April a temporary tower was completed and outfitted with the old lantern and lens. The removal of the old tower was completed on June 2nd, and ground was broken for the replacement tower and new dwelling on June 18th.

Dunkirik Lighthouse with coastal road Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

The light form the new, square limestone tower, containing a spiral, cast iron staircase, was first exhibited on July 1, 1876. The tower still stands to this day and is sixty-one feet tall. The attached keeper's dwelling is a beautiful, High Victorian Gothic specimen fashioned from red brick. The dwelling’s exterior is symmetrical with three large dormer windows, each with vintage wooden braces, adorning the north and south sides of the residence. The roof’s gabled ends are decorated with boarding and brackets.

A number of noteworthy shipwrecks have taken place in the vicinity of Dunkirk over the years. One of the most tragic wrecks happened in 1841 when the Chicago bound Erie burned and claimed around 150 lives, most of them German and Swiss immigrants. The cause of the fire was determined to be careless painters, bound for Erie, Pennsylvania to paint the S.S. Madison, who left their combustible turpentine and varnish on the deck above the ship’s boiler room. The first container exploded at 8 p.m., and in no time the volatile liquid had spread the fire over most of the ship. The steamboat Dewitt Clinton saw the flames, rushed to the scene, and was able to pick up twenty-seven survivors.

The Dean Richmond, a wooden cargo ship, sank near Dunkirk in 1893. The ship’s cargo included $141,000 in precious metal bullion, $50,000 in pig zinc, and copper sheets stored unsecured on the vessel’s deck. Fighting a gale force wind, the captain turned the Dean Richmond to enter Dunkrik harbor, but the copper sheets shifted, causing the vessel to capsize. Hundreds of bags of flour washed ashore from the wreck. Keeper Peter J. Dempsey and his family salvaged several sacks of flour, dried them out, removed a hardened outer crust, and enjoyed many loaves of bread and cakes from the free flour.

The station’s log reveals a number of other interesting incidents in the lives of the keepers of the Dunkirk Lighthouse. In 1873 the Yosemite drifted out of the channel and struck a shoal. The captain claimed that the Dunkirk Lighthouse was not lit the morning of the accident, but keeper B.F. Averill vehemently insisted that it was and had four witnesses who would testify in his defense. On May 1, 1885, Keeper Robert T. Taggart made the following entry in the logbook, “I gave notice that I would Resign. Cause Drunkness (sic).”

A number of pier lights marked the entrance to Dunkirk's harbor, including an iron beacon that was swept off the pier in 1895. An elevated walkway with a length of roughly 900 feet allowed the keepers to access the beacon even in stormy weather. Maintaining the pier-head light was the responsibility of the keepers of the Dunkirk Lighthouse, which is why an assistant keeper was assigned to the station. Located on the grounds of the lighthouse is a skeletal tower that was installed at the harbor entrance in 1939. This tower served until the present harbor light was put in place in 1992.

In 1896, the light station was hooked up to Dunkirk's waterworks with nearly a thousand feet of 2 ½ inch iron pipe, and in March of the following year a new dwelling was completed for the assistant keeper. Other turn of the century improvements included a 40-gallon hot water tank for the kitchen, and a brick oil house to hold the volatile kerosene used by the light.

Electricity arrived at the small beacon light in 1935, though it is unclear when the primary tower was hooked up to the power grid. As keepers no longer needed to brave the walk to the harbor beacon, the position of assistant keeper was discontinued, and the assistant keeper’s dwelling was leased to local families. During World War II and for a short period afterwards, Coast Guard personnel lived in the residence, but ultimately, the dwelling was demolished.

Around 1962, the Dunkirk Lighthouse was unmanned as the prominence of Dunkirk harbor had begun to wane and technology had made automation of the light possible. General maintenance was still performed by the Coast Guard, but without a resident keeper, the dwelling started to deteriorate. A group of veterans and citizens signed a 25-year lease on the property with the Coast Guard and turned the station into a memorial park and lighthouse museum. The keeper’s dwelling has been meticulously restored and features lighthouse memorabilia and photographs of keepers. Another building on the grounds houses military and maritime artifacts along with a souvenir shop, whose proceeds go towards continued maintenance of the station.

Photo Gallery: 1 2

References

1. Annual Report of the Light House Board, various years.
2. Point Gratiot’s Guiding Light: The Dunkirk Light Station, Jean Madigan Russ, 1989.
3. Seaway Trail Lighthouses, James Tinney and Mary Burdette-Watkins, 2000.