1876 Blueprints

In January 2022, the Friends were gifted a set of the original plans for the lighthouse built in 1876. These came from a former member of the US Coast Guard who secured several sets of plans for lighthouses when they were destined to be destroyed.

The plans are on linen and appear to have been starched which gives the plans a shine. You can actually see weave of the linen by looking closely.

The colors that show on the front of the plans were painted on the back side. Obviously this was all meticulously done by hand.

At this time, you cannot select a picture to enlarge it. But there are a couple of options:

• If you are using a phone, tablet, or laptop with an interactive screen, enlarge the page using the "two finger spread" method as usual.

• If you are using a laptop or computer screen that is not interactive, press and hold the Ctrl key and press the "+" key repeatedly until you zoom in. To return to a small size, press and hold the Ctrl key and press the "-" key repeatedly.

This is the only portion of the plan that shows any damage. It displays a portion of the wooden crib on which the tower was built. Remember that the lighthouse was initially surrounded by water.

A close up of the seal on the plans.

What we call the crib was labeled as "Crillage and Piling". Note the vertical and horizontal timbers as well as the partial circle that indicates where the tower would sit.

A look at the bottom of the tower. The steps ascend from there and are on the plans. Note the diameters!

A cross section of the house.

Engineering sign off, June 1876.

Lighthouse Board sign off.

There is a charming little drawing of a desk and built in shelves in one of the first floor rooms!

We tell visitors that the lighthouse tower is actually two towers, one inside the other with an air space in between. It's a difficult concept to visualize and these wonderful drawings bring it all to life!

Note that this sketch does not include the lantern room at the top, only the tower itself and the base that sits on the "crillage".

There is a window on the left side near the top. More about that further down the page.

A contrast to the picture above - this is the back side of the blueprint where the color was applied.

The brick base was done in gray, the inner and outer walls, with the air space in between, are painted red and the sand/ground is brown.

Seeing the tower walls in red helps to clearly see that the number of bricks making up the tower walls decreases from bottom to top. At the bottom, the inner wall is three bricks thick. Moving upward at about the level of the second window, the inner wall is two bricks thick. Then, above the second window it decreases to a single brick thick.

The outer wall also decreases in the number of bricks as the tower gets taller!

Floor plan of the first story (close ups follow). The summer kitchen/woodshed is at the top. The current layout in the museum is the same including the pantry except for one closet which currently opens from the 1920's bedroom. In the plans it is under the stairs.

Close up of half of the first story. No idea what was in the top right corner of the kitchen, maybe a sink?

The other half of the first story.

Notations on the back side of the plans.

According to the plans, there was a "6th order lens" in the window at the second landing in the tower. These plans are the first time we have heard about that!

Second story plans. The top right room is currently the kitchen in the Keeper's Quarters. The top left, called the Chamber, is a bedroom with two twin beds for visiting keepers. The bottom right room is currently the bathroom at the end of the house nearest the tower. The bedroom at the bottom left has a trundle bed for visiting keepers.

An amazing piece of our history!