St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum

Overview

The St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum is a nonprofit museum on Anastasia Island that owns and preserves the entire St. Augustine Light Station, including the 1874 lighthouse tower and its original first-order Fresnel lens, which remains an active aid to navigation. The museum holds a collection of 19,000 objects, archival documents and archaeological specimens, runs an active maritime archaeology program, and welcomes more than 216,000 visitors a year. It is a Smithsonian Affiliate and has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 2017.

From Watchtower to Lighthouse

In 1589, Italian mapmaker Giovanni Battista Boazio published a map of Sir Francis Drake's raid on St. Augustine that gives the first documented reference to a Spanish wooden watchtower at the end of Anastasia Island. By 1737 the Spanish had replaced it with a 30-foot watchtower of coquina and wood, and during the British Period (1763–1783) maps began to mark a lighthouse on the island. In the 1850s the old tower was raised and fitted with a fourth-order Fresnel lens. During the Civil War, Confederate sympathizers hid the lens and clockworks to block Union shipping; the beacon was relit in 1867.

The 1874 Tower

With the sea encroaching on the first tower, Congress appropriated $100,000 for a new lighthouse. The U.S. Lighthouse Service began building the 165-foot tower in 1871, with workers from St. Augustine including African American residents. On October 15, 1874, keeper William R. Russell lit the oil lamp inside the new first-order Fresnel lens for the first time. The nine-foot lens, with more than 370 handmade glass prisms, was made for St. Augustine in Paris by Sauter & Lemonier.

During World War II, a Coastal Lookout Building was added to the station, and armed guards watched the sea from the lighthouse around the clock after German U-boats appeared off the coast.

Saved by the Community

In 1970 a suspicious fire gutted the vacant keepers' house, and condominiums were discussed for the land. In 1980 the Junior Service League of St. Augustine stepped in, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and over 15 years the League raised more than $1.2 million to restore the keepers' house, the tower, and the original lens, which had been damaged by a vandal's bullet. A maritime museum opened full-time in early 1994, and the museum was separately incorporated in 1998. In 2002, the U.S. Coast Guard gave the tower and the Fresnel lens to the museum.

Visiting the Lighthouse

The museum is open daily. From October 1 to February 28, hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the last ticket sold at 5:30 p.m.; from March 1 to September 30, hours are 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., with the last ticket sold at 6 p.m. It is closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day and closes at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve. The tower may close due to weather and other events. Parking is free.

Accessible parking is available, with wheelchair ramp access to the Visitors' Center and Gift Shop, and all public restrooms are wheelchair accessible. A ramp leads to the main floor of the Keepers' House, and the 1936 WWII Garage and the Maritime Education Center are fully accessible. The tower itself is climbed by a 219-step spiral staircase: children must be at least 44 inches tall and climb under their own power, and carrying children in the tower is not allowed.

Leashed, well-behaved animals are welcome on the grounds but not in historic buildings or the tower; service animals are welcome everywhere except the tower. The site is a weapon-free zone, drones may not fly over the property during operating hours, and filming or photography for anything other than personal use requires a use agreement.