STEP BACK INTO HISTORY
Ponce De Leon Inlet Lighthouse Museum
Stop by and visit the Ponce De Leon
Inlet Lighthouse
when in the central Florida area
4931 South Peninsula Drive Ponce
Inlet,
Florida 32127 (386) 761-1821
OPEN 7 days a week - 10:00am to 5:00pm
Last admission 4:00pm
Memorial Day through Labor Day 10:00am to 9:00pm
Last admission 8:00pm
Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day
$5 for adults, $1.50 for kids 11 and younger
The days of the blue uniformed lighthouse
keeper - checking his oil supply, slowly climbing the tower to clean the lens -
have passed forever, yet his lighthouse remains. Built of bricks to serve as a
functional warning device and possessing a very special beauty noted by seamen
and landlubbers alike, the "Light Station at Mosquito Inlet" stands
on an Inlet still dreaded by mariners. Completed in 1887 and still an active
lighthouse, the Ponce de Leon Inlet Light Station is a National Historic
Landmark and is one of only a handful of light stations in the United States to
have all of its original buildings still standing.
Visit the Light Station and climb to the top of the lighthouse for a
breathtaking view of the Inlet, Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, and the surrounding
area. Enjoy the museum and learn of our
great maritime heritage. Become a museum member and receive free admission,
gift shop discounts, a subscription to the quarterly newsletter, invitations to
special events, and volunteer opportunities.
A WALKING TOUR OF THE PONCE DE LEON INLET LIGHT STATION
- #1 Entrance Building/Gift Shop: This building was built in 1992 from blueprints drawn in 1883 by the architect of our lighthouse for a keeper's dwelling planned for construction at this light station but never built. A large gift shop, restrooms, the Association's offices, meeting room, and research library are here.
- #2 Woodshed Video Theater & Privy Exhibit: Wood for the fireplaces and stove of the Second Assistant Keeper's family was kept in this building. In the Video Theater now housed here, you can travel back in time through a twenty minute video program to meet Keeper John Lindquist who tells about the life and history of the Light Station, when it was still called Mosquito Inlet Light Station. Around on the northeast side of this building, you will find the Assistant Keeper's privy, restored as it was when it served as his family's restroom.
- #3 The Boatyard: The Gay Wind was captained by long-time Ponce Inlet resident Redwood Wharton, and beginning in the late 1930s, took countless numbers sport fishing in the Atlantic. Also on view are Cuban rafts which were used by refugees to sail from Cuba to the United States.
- #4 The Second Assistant Keeper's Dwelling: This keeper's home is one of the three original buildings which served as dwellings for the families of the Keeper and his two assistants. Later, it served as the first Town Hall for Ponce Inlet. Today, it features exhibits about the lives of the keepers and the development of the local community, including
- #5 The Principal Keeper's Dwelling: The largest of the original Light Station dwellings, this building now houses a variety of exhibits including Native Americans in Florida, Filibustering to Cuba, and the Construction and Restoration of the Light Station.
- #6 The Lighthouse Tower: With a brick foundation 12 feet deep and 45 feet wide, the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse soars to 175 feet, one of the tallest brick lighthouses in the nation. The tower is 32 feet in diameter at the base and tapers to 12-1/2 feet at the top. The brick walls are 8 feet thick at the bottom and 2 feet thick at the top. One and a quarter million bricks were used to build the lighthouse, and the work took more than four years to complete. In the center of the Italian marble ground floor is the weight well, a standard feature of lighthouses, designed to catch items falling down the tower. Including the seven granite steps at the entrance to the Lighthouse, the iron, spiral staircase leads you 203 steps upwards to the lighthouse gallery (balcony) where the view from the top is unexcelled in our area.
- #7 The Pump House: Over a well dug in 1907, this building was constructed to house a water pump which was operated by a windmill built on a tower over the building. Water was pumped upwards to a 600 gallon cypress-wood water tank on the windmill tower. An electric generator was installed in 1925, bringing electricity to the Light Station. A year later, an electric water pump was also installed, and the windmill was taken down. Today, the well is still in use to supply water for the irrigation of our lawns.
- #8 First Assistant Keeper's Dwelling: This dwelling is named for Gladys Meyer Davis, a lifelong resident of Ponce Inlet, who was born here. Her father, Edward L. Meyer, was the last civilian principal lightkeeper at Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. This dwelling has been restored and furnished as it would have been at the turn of the century.
- #9 Generator/Radio Shack Building: Originally a woodshed and privy for the First Assistant Keeper's family, two electrical generators, like the one still here, were installed in the woodshed room in 1940, when a radio beacon was established at this Light Station. In 1943, the Coast Guard built the "Radio Shack" addition on the front of the woodshed to house a new radio room. Today, the restored radio room showcases the role of the Light Station during World War II.
- #10 The Ayres Davies Lens Exhibit Building: This building, built in 1995, a growing collection of lighthouse lenses and exhibits explaining the history and technology of Lighthouse Illumination.
- #11 USLHS Bell: This 600-pound bronze bell was cast by the E.A. Williams Bell Founders, Jersey City, NJ, in 1911. Bells like this were used by the United States Lighthouse Service as fog signals at lighthouses and on lightships. This particular bell was mounted on a sea buoy at the entrance to Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, but sank in a storm soon afterwards. Recovered by the United States Coast Guard in 1987, it was donated to the Light Station.
- #12 Oil Storage House: Built in 1887 with a unique double-wall ventilation system for safety, this was one of the first and largest buildings ever built at a lighthouse in the United States for the storage of kerosene. On shelves, inside, "mineral oil" was stored in 500 5-gallon cans. The shelves were replaced in 1927 by two large iron tanks which are still in the building. Gutted by fire set by vandals in 1970, the Oil Storage Building was fully restored in 1989.
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Ponce De Leon Inlet
Lighthouse Museum www.ponceinlet.org |
