Erie Land Lighthouse

Authorized by Congress in 1812, the first lighthouse at this site was completed in 1818, 200 feet west of the present lighthouse. Structural instability led to construction of a new 56-foot brick tower in 1858, but this tower also proved unstable because of sandy soils. The current 49-foot sandstone tower was built in 1866-67 on a massive foundation of eight courses of solid oak timbers and a ton of crushed limestone covered with cement. A 3rd order fixed Fresnel lens from Paris, France, was installed, casting a white beam 17 miles into Lake Erie. Officially known before 1870 as the Presque Isle Light Station, it was renamed the Erie Light Station after a lighthouse was built on Presque Isle, and it came to be known locally as the land lighthouse. The beacon served until 1899, when it was permanently extinguished, and its lantern room was transferred to the Marblehead Lighthouse in Ohio, where it remains today. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Erie, Pennsylvania · United States