Lighthouse Explorer Database ... Ponce de Leon ...

09/20/04 3:09 AM

1-800-758-1444

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Name: Ponce de Leon Inlet Light

Also known as: Mosquito Inlet Light

Also known as: Ponce Inlet Light

Nearest Town or City:
Ponce Inlet, Florida, United States

Location: North side of Ponce de Leon Inlet.

Click to enlarge: 18Kb   
Photo: Alan R. Headley
Related Photos

Managing Organization:
Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Assoc.

Telephone: 386-761-1821

Website: http://www.ponceinlet.org
Email:

Contact Address Information:
4931 South Peninsula Drive
Ponce Inlet
Florida, 32127, United States

Notes:
This lighthouse was designed by the noted engineer and writer F. Hopkinson Smith. The name was changed to Ponce Inlet to Mosquito Inlet in 1927. In 1972, the Ponce deLeon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association was founded to assist the Town of Ponce Inlet with the restoration and management of the light station. The station has now been fully restored and is a National Historic Landmark. The third order Fresnel lens was returned to the tower and relighted in April 2004.

Tower Height: 175

Height of Focal Plane: 164

Characteristic and Range: 6 white flashes every 15 seconds.

Description of Tower: Brown, conical brick tower with black cast iron lantern.

This light is operational

Other Buildings?
Three keeper's houses, three cisterns, oil house, pump house.

Earlier Towers?
1835: 45-foot brick tower, destroyed 1836.

Date Established: 1887

Date Present Tower Built: 1883-1887

Date Deactivated: 1970-1982

Date Automated: 1953

Optics: 1887: First order Fresnel lens (on display in lens exhibit building); 1933: Third order Fresnel lens (in use).

Current Use: Active aid to navigation (privately maintained), museum.

Open To Public? Yes.

Museum?
The three keepers' dwellings have been turned into a lighthouse museum, a sea museum, and a period house museum. In 1995, the first order lens from Cape Canaveral was restored and placed on display in a new building. Open every day except Christmas. From May 1st through Labor Day open 10 am to 8 pm (grounds and giftshop open until 9 pm). From the day after Labor Day through April 30th open 10 am to 4 pm (grounds and gift shop open until 5 pm).

Directions:
Take Exit 85 from I-95 at Port Orange, Route 421. Go east on Dunlawton Avenue. Continue through the intersection with Route 1 and over the bridge crossing the Halifax River. At the second traffic light, turn right (south) on Atlantic Avenue and continue through the village of Wilbur-by-the-Sea and four more miles to a four-way stop sign. Turn right on Beach Street. Go to the next four-way stop, and turn left on Peninsula Drive. After two blocks you will see the entrance to the lighthouse on your left.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Keepers: William Rowlinski (1887-1893); Thomas Patrick O'Hagan (1893-1905); John Lindquist (1905-1924); Charles Leslie Sisson (1924-1926); John Belton Butler (1926-1937); Edward Lockwood Meyer (1937-1943 - Under Coast Guard beginning January 1, 1939); Daniel C. O'Hagan (Coast Guard assistant 1939); Wesley B. Varnum (Coast Guard assistant 1939 -1943); W. R. Austin (Coast Guard assistant 1941); H. Cygan (Coast Guard assistant 1941-1942); Ray F. Jones (Coast Guard assistant 1941-1942); B. P. Patterson (Coast Guard assistant 1942); C. D. Hamby (Coast Guard assistant 1942); L. Y. Pivonha (Coast Guard assistant 1942); Eugene A. Lange (Coast Guard assistant 1942); J. H. Godfrey (Coast Guard assistant 1942); Thomas D. Mowery (Coast Guard assistant 1942-1943); H. Watson (Coast Guard assistant 1942); L. E. Knight (Coast Guard assistant 1942-1943); Victor Levan (Coast Guard assistant 1943); Joseph Cillis (Coast Guard assistant 1943); H. M. Chandler (Coast Guard assistant 1943); O. H. Sprinkle (Coast Guard assistant 1943); Roland G. Andrews (Coast Guard assistant 1943); Frank S. Kunz (Coast Guard assistant 1943); Thomas B. Elsey (Coast Guard assistant 1943); L. V. Markwalter (Coast Guard assistant 1943); Esmond F. Sawyer (Coast Guard assistant 1943); D. W. Ditsche, Jr. (Coast Guard assistant 1943); J. C. Daniels (Coast Guard assistant 1943-1944); Jones A. Pervis (Additional Keeper 1943-1944); Wiley B. Henderson (Coast Guard assistant 1943-1944); Jesse V. Conatser (Coast Guard assistant 1943-1944); H. E. Elliott (Coast Guard assistant 1943); E. B. Bravens (Coast Guard assistant 1943); T. T. Galloway (Officer in Charge 1943-1944 ); B. D. Nelson (Coast Guard assistant 1943-1944); Joseph A. LaRocca (Coast Guard assistant 1943); Elmer C. Cravens (Coast Guard assistant 1944); L. H. Bradford (Coast Guard assistant 1944); E. H. Elliott (Coast Guard assistant 1944); D. Dudeon (Coast Guard assistant 1944); ? Hamilton [Henderson?] (Coast Guard assistant 1944); ? Poole [?] (Coast Guard assistant 1944); H. Phillips (Coast Guard assistant 1944); F. Jones (Coast Guard assistant 1944); R. Blackmon (Coast Guard assistant 1944); H. C. Stringfield (Coast Guard assistant 1944); ? Bellamy (Coast Guard assistant 1944); William Welch Brown (relief keeper, 1944-1945); C. S. Cunningham (Coast Guard assistant 1944); Arthur Fulcher (relief keeper, 1946-1947); Maxwell Fulcher (relief keeper, 1947-1948); Charner Smith (Coast Guard assistant 1945-1948); Carl "Sandy" Sanders (Coast Guard assistant 1946-1948); Sidney Gillman (Coast Guard assistant 1948); Ellis H. Ellias, BM1 (Coast Guard assistant 1948); John W. Hicks (Coast Guard assistant 1948); Jesse F. Howard, BM1 (Coast Guard assistant 1948); George J. Barron (Coast Guard 1949); Chief ? Baker (Coast Guard circa 1950); Harry Jones (Coast Guard Chief of Station circa 1952); Herbert F. Smith (Coast Guard assistant circa 1952)