Original Cape Canaveral Lighthouse and its replacement Photograph courtesy State Archives of Florida

In silhouette, the lighthouse even resembles a rocket, and as crowds have gathered to watch a distant launch, more than one spectator has mistaken the lighthouse for a rocket. This resemblance was taken to the extreme in a short film entitled The Lighthouse That Never Fails. In the movie, an Air Force sergeant is shown laboriously climbing the lighthouse’s staircase. Just as he reaches the top to enjoy the view, a burst of flame erupts from the base of the tower. The next frames are a distant shot of the lighthouse taking flight. This effect was achieved by superimposing an image of the lighthouse on footage of an actual launch, and surprisingly, it is quite realistic.

The present Cape Canaveral lighthouse was not the first to be built on the cape. The original was a 65-foot brick tower, constructed in 1848. Its light was produced by a set of fifteen lamps backed by 21-inch reflectors. Nathanial Scobie was the light’s first keeper, but he soon abandoned his position due to the threat of a Seminole Indian attack.

The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse was built, in part, to warn mariners of shoals that extend east from the cape. It apparently was less than adequate at this as one captain remarked that “the lights on Hatteras, Lookout, Canaveral and Cape Florida, if not improved, had better be dispensed with, as the navigator is apt to run ashore looking for them.” The captain’s opinion must have been shared by others for a new tower was authorized in 1860. Any construction plans, however, soon had to be put on hold as the Civil War broke out.

Mills Burnham was the keeper of the light during this period. Following orders, he removed the lighting apparatus, crated it up, and then buried it in is orange grove to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Yankees.

After the war, work began on the new lighthouse. This unique tower was composed of metal plates with a brick lining and was erected not far from the original lighthouse. The first three levels of the new tower were designed as living quarters and consisted of a kitchen, living room, and bedrooms. The exterior staircase at the base of the tower allowed a keeper to access the top of the tower without having to go through the living area. On May 10, 1868, the first-order Fresnel lens, which filled the lantern room atop the 160-foot tower, was lit for the first time.

Keeper Burnham and his wife Mary raised five daughters and at least one son at the remote lighthouse. Since the dating pool on the cape was quite small, it comes as no surprise that some of the daughters of the keepers ended up marrying the bachelor keepers. Burnham’s oldest daughter, Frances, married Keeper Henry Wilson. The Wilson’s daughter, Gertrude, married Keeper Clinton P. Honeywell, who served at the lighthouse from 1891 to 1930. It is from the Honeywell’s daughter Florence, great-great-granddaughter of Keeper Burnham, that we gain further insights into life at the remote station. Florence and her brother and sister were baptized in their kitchen sink by a circuit minister who would stop by the lighthouse to conduct religious services once a month. The three Honeywell children received their initial education from a live-in teacher. The graves of Mills and Mary Burnham are located near the lighthouse.

Second Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Photograph courtesy State Archives of Florida

Originally painted white, the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse didn’t receive its distinctive black bands until 1873. Living inside the metal tower during the hot and humid summer months was like living in an oven, and the assistant keepers soon abandoned the tower’s living area in favor of their own makeshift dwellings outside the tower. In 1876, $12,000 was given for the construction of permanent dwellings for the displaced keepers.

The two towers had stood side-by-side for over two decades, when the decision was made to relocate the metal tower further inland due to erosion that supposedly threatened the lighthouse. Over a period of eighteen months, the tower was dismantled and transported roughly one mile inland using a rail cart pulled by mules. The light was relit at its new location on July 25, 1894. The original lighthouse was blown up and used as fill material at the new site. The place where the two lighthouses stood was never lost to the sea and is still readily identifiable about 400 feet from the ocean.

On May 11, 1949, President Trumam signed legislation establishing the Joint Long Range Proving Ground at Cape Canaveral, and the cape’s few residents soon had a very noisy neighbor. Two small communities had grown up near the lighthouse: Stinkmore to the south and DeSoto Beach to the north. During rocket launches, which commenced in 1950, the local residents were evacuated and put up in the Brevard Hotel in Cocoa. It wasn’t long, however, before the government grew weary of footing the bills for these free vacations, and soon both the towns were booted off the cape. Being government employees, the lighthouse keepers were allowed to remain.

The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse was automated in 1967, and later that year the three keeper’s dwellings were demolished. In 1993, the first-order Fresnel lens was removed from the tower. The strong vibrations, which accompanied the frequent launches, were starting to shake the lens to pieces - several prisms had actually fallen out of the supporting brass framework. The priceless lens was restored in 1995 and placed on display at the Ayres Davies Lens Exhibit Building at the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse.

A thorough restoration of the lighthouse was conducted by the Coast Guard starting in late 1995. A canvas shroud was placed over a network of nylon lines strung from the lighthouse to protect the surrounding area while the lead-based paint was sand-blasted off the tower. The nylon lines can be seen encircling the lighthouse in the bottom picture at left. The photograph, taken on October 20th, 1995, shows the Space Shuttle Columbia soaring into space. As part of the restoration, a new lantern room was placed atop the lighthouse and the original was placed on display at the Air Force Space and Missile Museum.

The lighthouse became property of the U.S. Air Force in December of 2000. The oil house, which lost its roof in a violent windstorm in the 1970s, was restored in 2003. The reinstallation of the lantern room in February of 2007, capped off a nearly million-dollar, year-long renovation of the lighthouse, and the beacon in the lantern room was relit on Sunday, 29 April 2007. The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation has been formed to support the lighthouse and holds at least one public event on the grounds each year. However, during the restoration of the tower, samples of the soil were taken and found to contain high levels of lead. For a time visitors were required to remain at least fifty yards away from the lighthouse, but it now seems that this restriction has been lifted.

References

1. Florida Lighthouses, Kevin McCarthy, 1993.