Steamship Pearl entering Buffalo harbor circa 1900 Photograph courtesy National Archives

There is some dispute over whether the title of first American lighthouse on the Great Lakes should be attributed to the early tower at Buffalo, New York or one at Erie, Pennsylvania. Both of these lighthouses claim 1818 as their construction year, but some historians feel that a portion of a $12,000 harbor improvement grant made to Buffalo in 1819 by the New York Legislature might have been used for the Buffalo Lighthouse.

The Buffalo Lighthouse, a sloping conical tower, was erected in a mere 221 days. Near the lighthouse, a stone breakwater was extended into the lake to enlarge and protect the city’s harbor. Mother nature opposed this extension with severe storms, and Buffalonians were often obliged to leave their beds in the middle of the night to repair storm damage to the incomplete pier.

Buffalo's lighthouse doubled as a rescue station on the night of October 31, 1821, when a steamboat was caught in a mighty storm. This was not just any steamboat, but the only steamboat on the entire Great Lakes at that time. Its importance to the local community can be appreciated in that it was known by the rather mystical moniker given it by Native Americans, Walk-in-the-Water. Mrs. Alanson W. Welton, a survivor of the accident, recalled that “the boat struck the beach in a fortunate spot for the safety of the passengers and crew – near the lighthouse – and all were saved. The warm fireside we gathered around at the lighthouse was comforting to our chilled limbs, and our hearts warmed with gratitude to God for deliverance from our peril.”

In 1825 the Erie Canal opened operations with its western terminus emptying directly into the harbor at Buffalo. This greatly increased the city’s ship traffic along with its population, which quadrupled between 1825 and 1832. In this era, Buffalo was a dangerous and bustling frontier town with half of its residents being born in foreign countries. The influx of immigration and instability contributed to high crime; between 1830 and 1835 an astounding 70% of crimes reported in the entire United States happened in or around Lake Erie or the Erie Canal. Amid this growing hodgepodge of people, the government decided that the old lighthouse could scarcely be seen with all of “the smoke of the village.” In 1826, the Treasury Department allocated $2,500 “to erect and build a pier, and lighthouse and ice breaker.” All this work was to be completed by 1828, but the lighthouse, which remains standing today, has a completion year of 1833 inscribed in the lintel above its door.

Buffalo Lighthouse with South Pier Light in foreground Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

The new octagonal tower was constructed of hewn limestone blocks at the end of the pier over a thousand feet east of the original lighthouse. From a base with a twenty-foot diameter, the lighthouse gradually tapers to a diameter of twelve feet at its lantern room. A local newspaper proudly gushed that the structure was the “most perfect work of its kind on this side of the ocean and perhaps in the world.” Initially the glow from fifteen oil lamps set in parabolic reflectors and focused by crude lenses of green convex glass were used as the tower’s light source, but it was soon determined that the lenses actually reduced the intensity of the light, and they were removed. The keepers lived some distance east of the tower in a dwelling that was built adjacent to the original lighthouse. A new residence for the keepers was constructed in 1899.

In 1852, the Lighthouse Board nominated the Buffalo tower as one of twenty lake lighthouses to receive a third-order Fresnel lens, and $2,500 was set aside for a fog bell. Installation of the fog bell was delayed due to the “unsatisfactory performance” of similar bells along the coast of Maine, and before the Buffalo tower received a Fresnel lens, its light source was first upgraded with a new chandelier system that reduced the arc of visibility from 180° to 110° but increased the intensity of the light. In 1856, Buffalo Lighthouse finally received its fog bell and third-order Fresnel lens. At this time, the tower’s focal plane was raised to 76 feet through the addition of a course of stone casement windows and a cylindrical metal service room between the top of the old tower and the lantern room. The fog bell was suspended from the black, shelf-like structure that can be seen protruding from the lakeward side of the tower.

The 1868 construction of a breakwater 2,500 feet out into the harbor fated Buffalo Main Lighthouse to eventual obsolescence, but it was yet to receive a few improvements. In 1885 a kerosene oil vapor lamp took the place of the tower's old lard oil lamp. At the turn of the century, the tower was painted white, and in 1902, the Lighthouse Board voted to change the tower’s characteristic from a fixed glow to white flashes to help it stand out from the electrified city lights of the Buffalo skyline. To produce a flashing light, a new four-panel, third-order Fresnel lens, manufactured by Chance Brothers & Co. of England at a cost of $3,386.74, an amount more than six times the lighthouse keeper's yearly salary, was installed in the tower on April 8, 1905. As the lens revolved, it produced a white flash every five seconds. Since the new lens was revolved by a clockwork mechanism powered by suspended weights, holes had to be cut in two of the tower's stone steps to accommodate a thirty-foot-long drop tube that had a diameter of twelve inches. Every seven hours, the keepers had to wind up the 200-pound weight so it could once again descend through the drop tube.

A two-ton coal bin was built into the tower's lower level in 1906, at the behest of the keeper who complained that the stove failed to properly heat the watchroom.

Third-order lens used in Buffalo Main Lighthouse

The old stone tower was slated to double as a life saving station lookout tower, but instead a wooden structure was built on a pier west of the old lighthouse to perform this important function. The new tower was dubbed the “Chinaman’s Light” as its roof resembled a Chinese coolie's hat and because it was also used to keep an eye out for illegal Chinese immigrants crossing over the Niagara River from Canada. When this structure was torn down, the nickname was transferred to the old Buffalo Lighthouse. The stone tower continued as a navigational aid and also served as a watchtower during Prohibition to counter rumrunners. The presence of a new breakwater light, established in 1872, increasingly relegated Buffalo's old tower to a mere pierhead light. In 1914, the four-panel Fresnel lens was relocated from the stone tower to a new breakwater lighthouse, and the old lighthouse remained dark for most of the 20th century.

An occulting red light mounted on a white, steel, skeletal tower was established on the south pier, just east of Buffalo Main Lighthouse, when the latter was discontinued in 1914. The tower also had a fog bell that tolled once every fifteen seconds when needed. An air diaphragm horn replaced the fog bell in 1942.

In the 1950s, the Army Corps of Engineers planned to demolish Buffalo Main Lighthouse as part of a river widening project, but public outcry saved the beacon and led to its restoration in 1962. Also during this year, the last three Coast Guard lighthouse keepers for the Port of Buffalo were relieved of duty with the automation of the south harbor station.

Buffalo Lighthouse was briefly relit with floodlights in 1976 to commemorate America's bicentennial and again in 1982 for Buffalo's sesquicentennial. The four-panel, third-order Fresnel Lens once used in the tower is on display at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. At present, the tower possesses a fourth-order, bivalve Fresnel lens that was originally used in the South Buffalo Lighthouse. This lens is weakly lit at night so as not to mislead maritime traffic.

The tower, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, is still under Coast Guard ownership, but was leased in 1984 to the Buffalo Lighthouse Association, who has poured much time and money into restoring and maintaining the tower. A 1,400-foot promenade along the south side of the Buffalo River features impressive historical signage that recounts the maritime history of the region. The promenade is a product of the Buffalo Lighthouse Association and the city’s efforts to preserve and interpret the 1833 Buffalo Lighthouse - Buffalo's oldest building still standing on its original foundation.

After 9/11, tours of Buffalo Main Lighthouse were canceled, and the public had limited access to the promenade that leads to the tower. In 2010, the Coast Guard announced it would relinquish a few of its thirty-one acres on the point, and Congressman Brian Higgins obtained over $6 million to reconfigure the Coast Guard station to allow public access to the lighthouse. In April 2011, Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation approved a grant of $170,700 to repair and restore the lighthouse in anticipation of public tours. The work was carried out by International Chimney Corporation, and the lighthouse was finally opened to the public in October 2011.

Head Keepers: John Skaats (1818 - 1827), William Jones (1827 - 1834), Sylvanus Russel (1834 - 1837), Captain Alexander Ramsdell (1837 - 1855), James Anderson (1855 - 1859), Shelton Cady (1859 - 1861), Edward Lee (1861 - 1871), Wallace Hill (1871 - 1876), George Schooter (1876 - 1879), Robert Taggart (1879 - 1884), John Reed (1887 - 1893), George Safe (1893 - 1905), John Safe (1905 - 1914).

Photo Gallery: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

References

1. Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board, various years.
2. Annual Report of the Commissioner of Lighthouses, various years.
3. Annual Report of the Lake Carriers' Association, various years.
4. “Beacon to the Heartland,” Mike Vogel, The Keeper’s Log, Fall 1987.