Built of brick brought from New Orleans by schooner, this lighthouse’s 16 mile range guided ships into the harbor and to the Rio Grande, bringing commerce to southwest Texas. Darkened during the Civil War, it served as a lookout for both Union and Confederate forces, and again during World War I. It was placed in honor of The American Merchant Marine by the United States Daughters of 1812, Texas Society, with Coryne Aston Boggs Choate as State President, on 9 February 1992.