The Lighthouse Service

Established in 1789, the U.S. Lighthouse Service maintained lighthouses and a district headquarters in Buffalo until it was absorbed by the Coast Guard in 1939. The Tenth District, long under the command of District Lighthouse Superintendent Roscoe House, operated a depot and lens-repair shop in Buffalo that served lighthouses on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. The district also tested diaphone foghorns at the Buffalo station, and one of the first radiobeacons on the Great Lakes was installed at the Buffalo Breakwater Light Station in 1925 and at the Dunkirk Lighthouse Station in 1929. The Coast Guard continued this work, and in the 1950s the Buffalo base became the agency's foghorn repair center. Early in the century, the Lighthouse Service tenders Mace, Crocus, Sundew, and Cherry were familiar sights in Dunkirk Harbor.

Dunkirk, New York · United States