Work at this site, the original location of the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse, was completed in the spring of 1874, and the tower’s fourth-order Fresnel Lens was illuminated for the first time on May 11, 1874. Repeated coastal storms caused erosion on the south side of the inlet, severely damaging the foundation, and in September 1913 the lighthouse was moved 150 feet west to its current location.