The Roanoke River Lighthouse is a historic, decommissionedlighthouse, located on the waterfront of Edenton, North Carolina. The lighthouse once stood in Albemarle Sound at the mouth of the Roanoke River, across the Sound from its current location. The only surviving screw-pile lighthouse in the state,[5] it has since been moved twice, and a replica of a predecessor light has been erected at a fourth location.
A lightship was placed at this location in 1835, designated "MM" in the 1939 USCG list of early lightships.[6] This vessel sported an arrangement of red, blue, and green lenses, and survived until the Civil War, when it was captured by confederate forces and was eventually taken up the Roanoke River and scuttled.[1]
The first permanent structure was erected in 1866, a square screw-pile lighthouse similar to others in the region.[1] This light burned in March 1885 and was reconstructed the same year; however, in the following winter moving ice broke two of the pilings and threw the house into the sound.[5]
A new light was constructed at the same site in 1887, another screw-pile structure of an atypical design. The new light had two stories rather than the usual single story, and the lantern housing the lamp sat on a tower arising from a corner of the building, rather than being mounted at the center of the roof. The light was equipped with a fourth-order Fresnel lens.[1]
Traffic through the area decreased in the twentieth century, and in 1941 the light was decommissioned, but left in place. It remained unoccupied into the mid 1950s, when in 1955 it was purchased from the Coast Guard by Elijah Tate, a local waterman, for $10.[1] Tate had also purchased two other screw-pile lighthouses in the region, but both were destroyed in attempts to move them from their pilings.[1] He sold the Roanoke River light to Emmett Wiggins, a tugboat operator who also ran a marine salvage business. Wiggins's solution to moving the light was to take a surplus Landing Craft Infantry (LCI) out to the light and place it beneath the structure, having partially flooded his improvised barge and removed all pilings but those at the four corners.[1]
The ballasting water pumped out, the LCI rose up under the house and supported it as the remaining connections to the foundation were severed.[1] The lighthouse was moved to a shore location at the mouth of Filbert's Creek just west of Edenton, North Carolina, where it would remain for over fifty years; it served as Wiggins's residence from 1960 until his death in 1995.[1]
Officials of the maritime museum in Plymouth had approached Wiggins about purchasing the light, but a sale was not completed before his death, and the million dollar price asked by his heirs was rejected.[1] Instead, they decided to build a replica of the earlier light, using archived plans.[7] Construction on the replica began in 2001 and was completed in 2003, with the replica structure standing across the street from the maritime museum.[8]
In 2007 the Edenton Historical society succeeded in purchasing the original lighthouse for $225,000, and on May 23, 2007, it was moved by barge to the town waterfront.[1]
In 2009, the State of North Carolina provided $1.2 million for the restoration of the lighthouse. Then, in the spring of 2010, employees of the A. R. Chesson Construction Company, who were preparing the new site for the lighthouse, smelled an odor later determined to be petroleum. The contamination, likely from an oil company that had previously occupied the site, led the Town of Edenton, the property owner, to file for permits to permanently reposition the lighthouse over the water instead.[9]
Structural restoration efforts began in 2010 with a replacement roof in the same material as the original construction, and all windows and doors restored and replaced. The restoration of the interior, complete with period furnishings, was finished in 2014.[10]
Third construction of the Roanoke River Lighthouse, following restoration in 2012. Lighthouse was moved via tugboat to current location in Edenton, North Carolina in 1955, for use as a private residence.
Related Research Articles
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Edenton is a town in, and the county seat of, Chowan County, North Carolina, United States, on Albemarle Sound. The population was 4,397 at the 2020 census. Edenton is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. In recent years Edenton has become a popular retirement location and a destination for heritage tourism.
A screw-pile lighthouse is a lighthouse which stands on piles that are screwed into sandy or muddy sea or river bottoms. The first screw-pile lighthouse to begin construction was built by the blind Irish engineer Alexander Mitchell. Construction began in 1838 at the mouth of the Thames and was known as the Maplin Sands lighthouse, and first lit in 1841. However, though its construction began later, the Wyre Light in Fleetwood, Lancashire, was the first to be lit.
The Seven Foot Knoll Light was built in 1855 and is the oldest screw-pile lighthouse in Maryland. It was located atop Seven Foot Knoll in the Chesapeake Bay until it was replaced by a modern navigational aid and relocated to Baltimore's Inner Harbor as a museum exhibit.
Bald Head Lighthouse, known as Old Baldy, is the oldest lighthouse still standing in North Carolina. It is the second of three lighthouses that have been built on Bald Head Island since the 18th century to help guide ships past the dangerous shoals at the mouth of the Cape Fear river.
The Thomas Point Shoal Light, also known as Thomas Point Shoal Light Station, is a historic lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay on the east coast of the United States, and the most recognized lighthouse in Maryland. It is the only screw-pile lighthouse in the bay which stands at its original site. The current structure is a 1½ story hexagonal wooden cottage, equipped with a foghorn as well as the light.
Carysfort Reef Light is located approximately six nautical miles east of Key Largo, Florida. The lighthouse has an iron screw-pile foundation with a platform, and a skeletal, octagonal, pyramidal tower, which is painted red. The light is 100 feet (30 m) above the water. It was the oldest functioning lighthouse of its type in the United States until it was decommissioned in 2015, having been completed in 1852. Carysfort Reef is named for HMS Carysfort(1766), a 20-gun Royal Navy post ship that ran aground on the reef in 1770. The light currently installed is a xenon flashtube beacon. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Sand Key Light is a lighthouse 6 nautical miles southwest of Key West, Florida, between Sand Key Channel and Rock Key Channel, two of the channels into Key West, on a reef intermittently covered by sand. At times the key has been substantial enough to have trees, and in 1900 nine to twelve thousand terns nested on the island. At other times the island has been washed away completely.
Old Mackinac Point Light is a deactivated lighthouse located at the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula in the U.S. state of Michigan. The lighthouse is part of Fort Michilimackinac State Park in the village of Mackinaw City just east of the Mackinac Bridge.
The Choptank River Light was a screw-pile lighthouse located near Oxford, Maryland. In its second incarnation it was the only such light moved from another location in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Lower Cedar Point Light was a historic lighthouse in the Potomac River near its eponymous point, south of the present Governor Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge, which carries U.S. Route 301 between Maryland and Virginia. It has been replaced by a skeleton tower.
Hooper Strait Light is one of four surviving Chesapeake Bay screw-pile lighthouses in the U.S. state of Maryland. Originally located in Hooper Strait, between Hooper and Bloodsworth Islands in Dorchester County and at the entrance to Tangier Sound, it is now an exhibit at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland.
Thimble Shoal Light is a sparkplug lighthouse in the Virginia portion of Chesapeake Bay, north of the Hampton Roads channel. The third light at this location, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Smith Point Light is a caisson lighthouse in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Potomac River. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
The Craney Island Light was a screwpile lighthouse located just east of Craney Island at the mouth of the Elizabeth River in Virginia. This light replaced the first permanently stationed lightship in the United States.
The Ship John Shoal Light marks the north side of the ship channel in Delaware Bay on the east coast of the United States, near the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Its cast iron superstructure was exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Sea Girt Light is a lighthouse marking the inlet leading to the Wreck Pond in Sea Girt in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. It hosted the first radio beacon mounted in a shore installation in the United States.
The One Fathom Bank Lighthouse refers to two offshore lighthouses in the Strait of Malacca, specifically, on a shoal within Malaysian waters, dubbed One Fathom Bank, off the coast of the state of Selangor.
Roanoke Marshes Light was a screw-pile lighthouse in North Carolina.
The Wade Point Light was a screw-pile lighthouse in North Carolina.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
