Currituck Beach Lighthouse
Built 1873-75 and first lit December 1, 1875, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse wears the natural color of its bricks instead of having a painted design for its day-marking (other lighthouses along North Carolina and Virginia coasts have such painted markings). According to a leaflet available at the site, nearly 1 million bricks were used in building the lighthouse tower, which is about 150 feet tall; roughly 5.5 feet thick at the base, the walls of the tower taper to a thickness of about 3 feet at the top. The focal plane is at 158 feet, and the roof of the lantern room at 162 feet. The first-order Fresnel lens installed in 1875 is still in place; the light was electrified in 1933 and automated in 1937. It remains an active aid to navigation operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. (The satellite and hybrid views of the map show the boardwalk through a marshy area and into Currituck Sound from which this photo was taken.)
In 1980, Outer Banks Conservationists, Inc., began a phased restoration of the Currituck Beach Light Station compound, which includes two houses once occupied by keepers; in the years after automation of the light, the structures had fallen into disrepair and were vandalized. The lighthouse was opened to the public in 1991, and today the restoration of the property is essentially complete. Currituck Beach Lighthouse was added to the National Register of HIstoric Places in 1973 (73001333); boundary increases in 2000 converted the listing to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse Complex.
Currituck Beach Lighthouse is at Corolla, near the northern end of North Carolina's Outer Banks; this narrow stretch of barrier island is accessible by car only from the south. When I first went to the Outer Banks after moving to Virginia in 1981, there was no paved road to Corolla; after the 1984 completion of the road, it didn't take many years for the open stretches of land along the Atlantic (east) and Currituck Sound (west) sides begin to be fill with houses; now residential development is nearly everywhere, and buildings are still going up.
Currituck Beach Lighthouse
Built 1873-75 and first lit December 1, 1875, the Currituck Beach Lighthouse wears the natural color of its bricks instead of having a painted design for its day-marking (other lighthouses along North Carolina and Virginia coasts have such painted markings). According to a leaflet available at the site, nearly 1 million bricks were used in building the lighthouse tower, which is about 150 feet tall; roughly 5.5 feet thick at the base, the walls of the tower taper to a thickness of about 3 feet at the top. The focal plane is at 158 feet, and the roof of the lantern room at 162 feet. The first-order Fresnel lens installed in 1875 is still in place; the light was electrified in 1933 and automated in 1937. It remains an active aid to navigation operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. (The satellite and hybrid views of the map show the boardwalk through a marshy area and into Currituck Sound from which this photo was taken.)
In 1980, Outer Banks Conservationists, Inc., began a phased restoration of the Currituck Beach Light Station compound, which includes two houses once occupied by keepers; in the years after automation of the light, the structures had fallen into disrepair and were vandalized. The lighthouse was opened to the public in 1991, and today the restoration of the property is essentially complete. Currituck Beach Lighthouse was added to the National Register of HIstoric Places in 1973 (73001333); boundary increases in 2000 converted the listing to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse Complex.
Currituck Beach Lighthouse is at Corolla, near the northern end of North Carolina's Outer Banks; this narrow stretch of barrier island is accessible by car only from the south. When I first went to the Outer Banks after moving to Virginia in 1981, there was no paved road to Corolla; after the 1984 completion of the road, it didn't take many years for the open stretches of land along the Atlantic (east) and Currituck Sound (west) sides begin to be fill with houses; now residential development is nearly everywhere, and buildings are still going up.