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Simons Lighthouse Lighthouse Construction When Federal troops landed in Brunswick, they searched for the lens to no avail.
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The Fresnel lens, installed in 1857, was dismantled and removed “to the interior” prior to destruction of the tower. On September 29, 1861, the local Glynn Guards Infantry Company blew up the Lighthouse to keep it out of the hands of the Union Navy. Tabby salvaged from 18 th century Fort Frederica may have been used in construction of the lighthouse.Īt the beginning of the Civil War, a Confederate earthworks fort was built west of the Lighthouse. The lime was made from burning oyster shells. Tabby, a building material often used along the southern coast, is a mixture of oyster shells, sand, water, and lime. Gould’s lighthouse was constructed of tabby, except for the uppermost portion which was made of brick. The first light, an oil lantern probably fueled with whale oil, was suspended in an iron lantern room ten feet tall. The tower was 75 feet tall, with 8 foot thick walls at the foundation. Octagonal in shape, the Lighthouse had a base 25 feet in diameter, tapering to 10 feet in diameter at the top. Simons and trained several of his slaves to maintain the Lighthouse. Gould acquired a cotton plantation on St. In 1810, President James Madison appointed Gould to serve as the first keeper at an annual salary of $400. Born in Massachusetts in 1772, James Gould moved south in the 1790s to survey timber. The project included plans for a dwelling house, separate kitchen, oil house, and well. In May 1807, James Gould was awarded the contract to build the St. Simons to the Federal government as the site for a lighthouse. In 1804, John Couper, owner of Cannon’s Point Plantation, deeded four acres of land at the southern end of St. In1975, the Dwelling became a museum of coastal history, operated by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society. The Dwelling was home to lighthouse keepers and their families until the light was automated in the mid-1950s. Designed and manufactured in France, the lens casts its beam 23 miles out to sea.
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The tapering brick tower still serves as an Active Aid to Navigation and houses the original third order Fresnel lens. Simons Lighthouse and Keeper’s Dwelling were built in 1868-1872, replacing an earlier light station destroyed during the American Civil War.