Currituck Beach Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Nearly 100 years after the first lighthouse was constructed along North Carolina’s shores, there remained a forty-mile stretch of “dark” coast between Bodie Island and Cape Henry, Virginia, where ships still fell prey to the dangerous waters of the Outer Banks. Although Congress had approved plans for a lighthouse and allocated the necessary funds, the outbreak of the Civil War put a stop to any construction. In their 1872 Annual Report, the Light-House Establishment again stressed the need to illuminate this part of the coast. “The land along the coast in this vicinity is low and in many places without trees, so even in day-time there is danger of vessels getting into unsafe proximity to the coast before coming aware of it . . . in the absence of powerful sea-coast lights sufficiently near each other to give warning of approach to danger, many vessels laden with valuable lives and cargoes are in danger of being lost.”

Congress responded with several appropriations totaling $178,000, and in 1873 Dexter Stetston, who had previously overseen the construction of towers at Cape Hatteras and Bodie Island, began work on the 162-foot tower. A foundation of stone and timber piling was laid seven feet below ground, and well over a million bricks were used for the tower. On December 1, 1875, the last brick lighthouse to be built on the Outer Banks was illuminated for the first time.

The first-order Fresnel lens was originally fueled by a mineral oil lamp consisting of five concentric wicks that were visible for 18 nautical miles. Two keepers and their families shared a Victorian “stick style” duplex constructed from pre-fabricated materials sent by barge and constructed on-site. A smaller keeper’s house was moved to the site in 1920 to accommodate a third lighthouse keeper, but in 1939 the light was automated when the U.S. Coast Guard absorbed the U.S. Lighthouse Service, and the keepers were no longer needed. After World War II, the lighthouse’s usefulness declined, the property was abandoned, and by the 1970’s the tower and the keeper’s house had fallen into disrepair. Vandals had stripped the keeper’s house of its wainscoting and destroyed the mahogany balustrades. Broken doors and windows left the house open to the elements, and soon the porches had fallen in, the floors were ruined, and tangled vines crept in and out.

First-order Frensel lens in Currituck Beach Lighthouse

Fortunately a group of concerned citizens formed the Outer Banks Conservationists (OBC), Inc., and in 1980 they leased the property—excluding the lighthouse—from the State of North Carolina. Thanks to their efforts, the original keeper’s house is now on the National Registry of Historic Places and renovations continue to renew the property’s former beauty. Over a million dollars has gone into restoring and maintaining the lighthouse. In 1999 the ironwork was restored and reproductions of the original wooden windows replaced the rather unfortunate Plexiglas panels serving as temporary shields.

The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 made several lighthouses, including the Currituck Light, available to federal, state, and local agencies, non-profit corporations, and community development organizations. Both OBC and the County of Currituck Board of Supervisors filed applications for ownership of the Currituck Lighthouse in February 2003. The National Park Service Review Committee rated the two applications in March 2003, and recommended that OBC be awarded the lighthouse. Currituck County immediately appealed the decision and, backed by the support of Congressman Walter Jones, the dispute soon escalated into what has been called the “Fight for the Light.” In the end, the deed to the lighthouse was signed over to OBC, justly rewarding the organization for its years of restorative work.

Today, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse is one of three lighthouses in North Carolina open to the public. Shady brick walkways link the lighthouse keeper’s houses with several outbuildings, including a gift shop. Visitors can climb the 214 steps up the circular staircase to the lighthouse gallery, and romantically-inclined lighthouse enthusiasts can even schedule weddings on the grounds of the compound. From Good Friday until after Thanksgiving, visitors can travel back to the time before radars and airplanes, back to the time when lighthouses provided life-saving navigational assistance. And every night, from dusk to dawn, the 20-second flash cycle of Currituck Beach Lighthouse illuminates the sky.

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References

1. Lighthouses of the Carolinas: A Short History and Guide, Terrance Zepke, 1998.
2. Currituck Beach Lighthouse website.

The Currituck Beach Lighthouse and Museum Shop are open daily from Easter through Thanksgiving (closed Thanksgiving Day). Call (252) 453-4939 for lighthouse hours and more information. There is a small fee for climbing the lighthouse.