Two prominent mounds mark the remains of the oldest light station structures: the 1812 Keeper’s Quarters and the 1812 lighthouse. The mound on the left was the site of the 1812 Keeper’s Quarters, which remained in use for many years after new quarters were built in 1873. The mound on the right was the site of the 1812 lighthouse, which stood 107 feet tall but proved 56 feet too short to keep ships off the shoals. It was replaced when the 163-foot lighthouse now standing there went into operation in 1859, and the original lighthouse was demolished sometime after 1868. In 1851, Lt. H.J. Harstene of the U.S. Navy wrote that the lights on Hatteras, Lookout, and Cape Florida, if not improved, had better be dispensed with because navigators were apt to run ashore looking for them. The original 1812 Keeper’s Quarters was used for nearly a century before it was torn down in the early 1900s, and the only known image of the original 1812 lighthouse is a sketch made around 1830. Red dust on the mound comes from bricks used inside the lighthouse, whose exterior was wood.