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Cape Fear Lighthouse

Location	North Carolina
Coordinates	33°50′48″N 77°57′57″W / 33.846619°N 77.965884°W / 33.846619; -77.965884
Tower
Constructed	1903
Construction	cast iron skeleton tower
Height	184 feet
Shape	Octagonal pyramidal skeleton
Heritage	National Register of Historic Places listed place
Light
First lit	1903
Deactivated	1958
Range	19 miles
Characteristic	flashing white every 10 seconds
Cape Fear Lighthouse Complex
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Houses at the complex, known as Captain Charlie's Station, in 2007
Nearest city	Bald Head Island, North Carolina
Area	2 acres (0.81 ha)
Demolished	1958
NRHP reference No.	78001931
Added to NRHP	August 29, 1978

Cape Fear Lighthouse was a coastal beacon built in 1903, replacing the Bald Head Lighthouse as the main navigation aid for Cape Fear and the Frying Pan Shoals off the coast of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It stood near the cape on Bald Head Island. It was a steel octagonal pyramidal skeleton frame lighthouse, as opposed to the conical brick lighthouses usually associated with the state. It was painted red and white horizontal stripes: three white and two red and housed a first-order Fresnel lens produced by the Henry-LePaute Company in France.

In August 1906, the upper part of the tower above the columns was changed from white to black to provide a more conspicuous day beacon. In 1915, $35,000 was requested to disassemble and move the tower and dwellings to the site of Bald Head Lighthouse, as it was believed that shoreline erosion would soon endanger the structures. Apparently the erosion ceased because the funding request was not repeated and the keepers dwellings still stand today on their original location near the concrete foundation blocks that once supported the lighthouse.

The Cape Fear Light was maintained for more than half of its life by Capt. Charlie Swan, its lighthouse keeper. On December 5, 1932, first assistant lighthouse keeper, Devaney F. Jennette, died of a heart attack while in the watch room. He had just climbed the tower and was talking to Capt. Swan at the time. The Cape Fear Lighthouse was replaced in 1958 by the powerful Oak Island Lighthouse. The Cape Fear lighthouse was then demolished because it was believed that if the deactivated tower remained standing it could confuse mariners.

When the lighthouse was demolished the Coast Guard in an unusual move gave the first order Fresnel lens from the Cape Fear lighthouse to the demolition contractor. The intact lens ended up at an antique store in Wilmington where the prisms and glass panels were sold off piece by piece over the next 50 years. In 2009 what was left of the lens was acquired by the Old Baldy Foundation and returned to Bald Head island for restoration. Several of the glass prisms and panels from the lens that were sold off over the years have been returned to Bald Head Island. The Old Baldy Foundation plans to display the restored lens near the former site of the Cape Fear Lighthouse.

The Cape Fear Lighthouse Complex, also known as Cap'n Charlie's Cottages still stands, it consists of a row of three detached light keepers' houses and a supply shed and the piers of another shed. They were constructed in 1903, along with the lighthouse.

The complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

References

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. Division of Archives and History (n.d.). "Cape Fear Lighthouse Complex" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-08-01.

External links

• The Cape Fear Light.

v t e Lighthouses of North Carolina
Main: List of lighthouses in the United States
Active	Bodie Island Light Cape Hatteras Light Cape Lookout Light Currituck Beach Light Oak Island Light Ocracoke Light
Deactivated / dismantled / decommissioned	Bald Head Light Campbell Island Light Cape Fear Light Diamond Shoal Light Federal Point Light Frying Pan Shoals Light Hatteras Beacon Price Creek Light Roanoke Marshes Light Roanoke River Light Wade Point Light

v t e U.S. National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina
Topics	Contributing property Keeper of the Register Historic district History of the National Register of Historic Places National Park Service Property types
Lists by county	Alamance Alexander Alleghany Anson Ashe Avery Beaufort Bertie Bladen Brunswick Buncombe Burke Cabarrus Caldwell Camden Carteret Caswell Catawba Chatham Cherokee Chowan Clay Cleveland Columbus Craven Cumberland Currituck Dare Davidson Davie Duplin Durham Edgecombe Forsyth Franklin Gaston Gates Graham Granville Greene Guilford Halifax Harnett Haywood Henderson Hertford Hoke Hyde Iredell Jackson Johnston Jones Lee Lenoir Lincoln Macon Madison Martin McDowell Mecklenburg Mitchell Montgomery Moore Nash New Hanover Northampton Onslow Orange Pamlico Pasquotank Pender Perquimans Person Pitt Polk Randolph Richmond Robeson Rockingham Rowan Rutherford Sampson Scotland Stanly Stokes Surry Swain Transylvania Tyrrell Union Vance Wake Warren Washington Watauga Wayne Wilkes Wilson Yadkin Yancey
Other lists	Bridges National Historic Landmarks

• Lighthouses completed in 1903
• Buildings and structures in Brunswick County, North Carolina
• Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in North Carolina
• National Register of Historic Places in Brunswick County, North Carolina
• 1903 establishments in North Carolina
• Buildings and structures demolished in 1958
• 1958 disestablishments in the United States