The 1855 Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board contained the following appeal for a lighthouse on Fenwick Island:

A light-house in the vicinity of Fenwick’s island will serve to guide vessels from the southern ports, bound into the Delaware, and also the great coasting trade with the same or a more northern destination. Fenwick’s Island shoal is a very dangerous one for those, and also in some degree for the European trade of Philadelphia. It is very common for ships coming from the eastward to fall in with the coast considerably to the southward of Cape Henlopen, and in thick weather a light on Fenwick’s island would serve to ascertain their position when the Henlopen light was invisible.

Fenwick Island Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

As there was a sixty-mile gap between Cape Henlopen, the lighthouse at the southern entrance to Delaware Bay, and the next lighthouse to the south on Assateague Island, a beacon somewhere between the two was certainly justified. Congress appropriated $25,000 for Fenwick Island Lighthouse in 1856, and on January 11, 1858 a ten-acre tract for the station was obtained from Mary C. Hall for a mere $50. The tower, built of brick, stood seventy-five feet, six inches from its base to the gallery that encircled the watchroom. The inside diameter at the base of the double-walled tower was eight and a half feet, and a central cast-iron spiral stairway provided access to the lantern, where a third-order L. Sautter & Cie Fresnel lens was installed.

A two-story, frame keeper’s dwelling was built just east of the tower atop a brick cellar. Housed in the cellar was a 2,500-gallon cistern for storing rainwater captured from the dwelling’s roof. The buildings at the station were constructed under the direction of Captain William F. Raynolds of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a total cost of $23,749. According to Notice to Mariners, No. 284, dated December 29, 1858, work on the Fenwick Island Lighthouse was complete, but for some reason not given, the light would not be exhibited until August 1 of the following year. John Smith was the first keeper at the lighthouse.

Originally, the lighthouse was kept by just one keeper, but later an assistant keeper was assigned to the station, and in 1878 the Lighthouse Board began annual petitions for funds for a second dwelling. Bids for the dwelling were opened on June 8, 1881, and the winning contractor, Thomas W. Ferree & Brother, of Yorklyn, Delaware had the structure ready for its formal acceptance on November 12, 1881. Assistant Keeper William F. Pepper remained in the original dwelling with his family, while Keeper John D. Bennett took up residence in the new structure with his family.

On Christmas morning, 1931, as a keeper was extinguishing the light, he noticed a small sailboat stranded on a sandbar about a half mile south of the lighthouse. Seeing what appeared to be a person huddled inside the craft, the keeper set out for the boat and discovered the occupant to be an unconscious man clothed in fur garments. The keeper took the man back to the lighthouse, where he soon recovered. Amazingly, the man turned out to be an Eskimo who weeks earlier had embarked on a solo journey from Greenland to Alaska via the Panama Canal. After two days spent at the lighthouse regaining his strength and taking on new provisions, the Eskimo resumed his lengthy journey to Alaska.

Soon after the Coast Guard took control of the lighthouse in 1939, it sold off three-quarters of the station’s land including the old dwelling to Charles. L. Gray, the last keeper of the lighthouse, for $1,610.79. The second dwelling and most of the remaining property was eventually sold as well, and in 1978, the lighthouse was deactivated and its Fresnel lens removed. This action caught many of the locals unawares, and the Coast Guard was soon receiving calls and letters from people protesting the decommissioning of the light. Paul Pepper, whose great-grandfather, David M. Warrington, was the third keeper of the light and whose grandfather, Edward G. Pepper, served as an assistant keeper, was the driving force behind the campaign to restore the light. For sixty years, Paul and his wife Dorothy had enjoyed viewing the comforting beacon from their nearby home, and Dorothy was an unofficial historian for the lighthouse, having written numerous articles published in newspapers, magazines, and books.

Paul Pepper’s crusade proved successful, and on September 21, 1981, the Coast Guard transferred ownership of the tower to the State of Delaware, which then leased it to the Friends of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse. Pepper was elected president of the group, and the following year the lighthouse, equipped with a less powerful light and its returned Fresnel lens, was relit. The lighthouse was starting to show its age, but fortunately State Senators Cordrey and Sharp, both summer residents of Fenwick Island, were avid supporters of the lighthouse group and succeeded in obtaining $400,000 to restore the tower.

During the restoration work in 1997, the lighthouse was encircled with scaffolding, and this outer layer was then wrapped in protective coating. When the tower emerged after the reparative work, it was almost as good as new. In July of 1998, a rededication ceremony was held at the lighthouse. A plaque honoring the tireless effort of Paul and Dorothy Pepper was presented to Paul Pepper and then later placed on display at the lighthouse. Unfortunately, Dorothy had passed away two years earlier.

Speaking at the ceremony, eighty-nine-year-old Paul Pepper stated, “When I look at the lighthouse now, I sorta feel like I have been the manager or quarterback of our team of The Friends of Fenwick Island Lighthouse and we have just scored a big winning touchdown by convincing the State of Delaware to do a complete renovation job for us. This would not have happened if we had not all pulled together, donating our time, effort and money. I want to thank everybody . . . I am so happy. I just wish Dorothy could have lived to see this accomplished. She would have been thrilled."

Oliver H. Cropper succeeded Pepper as president of the Friends of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse in 1992 and helped raise more than $100,000 for the upkeep of the lighthouse. Cropper faithfully served as president for over fifteen years, until a "new" friends support group was formed in 2007 under the direction of Winnie Lewis, granddaughter of a former lighthouse keeper. Now, another generation of friends are gradually assuming the care and maintenance of the stately structure.

References

1. Guiding Lights of the Delaware River & Bay, Jim Gowdy and Kim Ruth, 1999.
2. “Pepper’s Fenwick Dream Fulfilled,” Timothy Harrison, Lighthouse Digest, September, 1998.