Immediately after the War of 1812, brisk increased trade with Canada led to construction of a lighthouse and two-room keeper's house on the bluff in 1822. In 1829, two piers were built to channel the river. A new wooden lighthouse was built at the end of the west pier in 1838, replaced by a new structure in 1854 and again by a cast iron beacon in 1880. The lantern from the stone tower was moved to the west pier in 1881, and the lighthouse on the hill was decommissioned. In 1902, work began to replace the wooden pier and catwalk with concrete, and a lighthouse in Summerville was erected at the end of the east pier with a fixed red lantern. Dredging of the mouth of the Genesee River started in 1908 and continues to this day. The original stone tower then stood abandoned for the next hundred years. The original keeper's house had been replaced with a brick one in 1863. After the government deemed the lighthouse excess property and slated the structures for demolition, students from Charlotte High School saved the property with a 1965 letter-writing campaign. In 1982, the Coast Guard offered to lease the tower and keeper's house to the Charlotte community to operate as a museum, and ownership of the property was later transferred to the County of Monroe. Volunteers restored the property, and students from Edison Tech built a replica lantern for the tower. Rochester's 1984 Sesquicentennial celebration included tours of the lighthouse grounds and Tall Ships at the port. The lighthouse museum opened on May 16, 1987. The restoration earned national recognition for the historical society, and the second oldest tower on the Great Lakes was saved and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1931, the west pier light was automated and mounted on a red metal tower, which remained until 1995, when it was replaced by a red and white cylindrical tower.
