Sand Key Lighthouse

Sand Key

Location  24.27.19N  081.52.58W 

7 miles SW of Key West

Florida Keys

                                 photographer  Ken Araujo

This history below comes from the excellent work of  Neil Hurley
Copyright 1996, 1998 Historic Lighthouse Publishers

Visit  his Lighthouse Site 

http://users.erols.com/lthouse/aslt.htm

The first Sand Key Light was a 60-foot tall brick tower that was build in 1827. The tower was equipped with 14 lamps with 21-inch reflectors and cost $13,500. John Flaherty (formerly keeper at Dry Tortugas) was the first Keeper. After his death in 1832, his wife Rebecca became Keeper. the lighthouse survived the hurricanes of 1835, 1841 and 1842 with minimal damage, but in 1844, a strom removed part of the island, destroyed the dwelling and damaged the seawall. Before the seawall could be replaced, the hurricane of October 10, 1848 struck. The storm washed the island away, collapsing both the new dwelling and the tower in the process. Rebecca Flaherty and five others at the lighthouse were killed.

After the storm, the ship HONEY was purchased and outfitted as a lightship. The lightship marked the site until a new lighthouse was completed in 1853.

The new lighthouse was the second iron pile lighthouse in Florida, and the first lighthouse in Florida to use screw piles. It was designed by I.W.P. Lewis and fabricated in Charleston, South Carolina. Lieutenant George Meade was the engineer in charge of construction. Meade later served in the Civil War and gained fame for leading the Union forces at the crucial Battle of Gettysburg. Iron living quarters on a platform above the base of the tower contained nine equal sized rooms. The new lighthouse was first lit on July 20, 1853. It had cost $126,000.

The new lighthouse was put to the test in 1856 when a hurricane washed all of Sand Key away with no damage to the lighthouse. The lighthouse also survived an 1875 hurricane, but the the decayed condition of the living quarters required their entire replacement at a cost of $20,000.

A weather station was built on the land adjacent to the lighthouse around the turn of the century, but the weather station washed away in another hurricane. Fortunately, the weather station employees took refuge in the lighthouse during the storm and there were no injuries.

Sand Key lighhouse was converted to acetylene gas and unmanned around 1932. In the 1950's it was converted to electricity from batteries. In 1967 the first order Fresnel lens was removed and replaced by a fourth order lens.

(note: this section is taken from the Ponce DeLeon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association, Inc., newsletter of January 1996.)
In November 1995, work started on a complete renovation of the historic structure after it was severely damaged in a fire in 1989.

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