The Tinicum Rear Range Lighthouse began operation on the evening of December 31, 1880. It is a steel skeletal structure standing 85 feet tall, with 112 steps leading from the neoclassical pavilion at the base of the tower to the lantern room, and directly below the lantern room is the watch room, which has a unique wood lined closet that curves along the circular outer wall of the tower. The light station as it appeared in 1913 included the light tower, a keeper’s dwelling with seven rooms, a brick oil house, frame barn and barnyard, cow shed, poultry house, and privy on 4.8 acres of land. In its early days, day marks consisting of a four foot diameter iron disk mounted on a tall staff above the lantern room and slatted frames on each side of the tower below the watch room were added so they would show above interfering trees at the old Lincoln Park. Today only the lighthouse remains, although a few original bricks from the walkways connecting the station’s buildings may still be found around the base of the tower. Benjamin Hannold was the first lighthouse keeper at Tinicum, and Captain John Birch was the light’s last official keeper. In 1890, the light was described as a fixed red light of the 5th order, 109 feet above sea level and visible for 8.5 nautical miles; it was later changed to a white light with a red sector marking the turning point to the next range, and in 1917 it changed from oil to electric. It remains an active aid to navigation as a fixed red light exhibiting 500,000 candlepower from a 1,000 watt lamp. The Tinicum Rear Range Lighthouse works with the Tinicum Front Range Light, which also serves the Fort Mifflin Bar Cut Range and was activated on December 31, 1880 on the Delaware River bank about 5/8 of a mile southwest of the rear light. The front light station, also called the Billingsport Front Light, originally housed its lights in the dwelling, then moved them to a detached tower in 1887 because of a change in the shipping channel, and again to a new tower in 1908 after another shift in the channel. Today only the base of that tower remains, supporting a modern skeletal tower with two automated lights that continue to mark the Tinicum and Mifflin Ranges.
