Charleston, South Carolina (September 2008)
The Morris Island lighthouse (map) has the classic appearance of what a lighthouse “should” look like. I took this long-range photograph taken from several miles away at Fort Sumter. It doesn’t do it much justice, but you can just make out the alternating black and white horizontal bands painted onto masonry if you look closely.
This marked the third lighthouse to be built on the site. Confederate forces destroyed the previous light during the Civil War. It took a few more years for this version to be constructed and finally the light returned in 1876. The 150 foot brick tower housed a first order Fresnel lens, replaced by modern optics in the 1930’s, and finally fell dark when the Sullivan’s Island lighthouse opened in 1962.
A Perilous Position
The Morris Island Lighthouse had a huge problem that hastened its replacement. The island began to erode. A jetty system constructed to deepen the Charleston Harbor shipping channel exacerbated the loss of land. When man messes with one area it often changes another, and that’s what happened here. Originally, when built, the lighthouse stood about a half-mile away from the coast. By the 1930’s it sat at water’s edge and today it stands alone on a massive concrete foundation more than a quarter-mile offshore. The support buildings constructed on the lighthouse grounds have long since been removed, and indeed, would now sit underwater if they still existed. So much for Morris Island.
People continue to hard to preserve and stabilize the Morris Island Lighthouse before it topples into the Atlantic Ocean. A local non-profit organization called “Save the Light” bought the structure in 1999 and worked an arrangement to transfer ownership to the State of South Carolina at no cost. In return, Save the Light retains responsibility for its preservation. The foundation supports its effort through extensive fundraising. We wish them well.
Readers who have an interest in lighthouses might also want to check my Lighthouse Index page.
Leave a Reply