Morris Island Lighthouse guards the entrance to Charleston Harbor and, at 161 feet, is South Carolina’s tallest lighthouse. The present brick tower was completed in 1876 after the Civil War destroyed the earlier station’s lantern and lens, replacing a lighthouse lineage on the site that began in 1767. Built inland on a larger Morris Island, it later became stranded offshore as erosion intensified after jetties altered ocean currents in 1889. Despite surviving the 1885 hurricane and the 1886 Charleston earthquake, the advancing sea led to automation in 1938 and decommissioning in 1962. Preservation efforts have since stabilized and periodically reilluminated this enduring harbor landmark.