Jupiter Inlet - Jupiter, FL

Photographer: Merle Bishop

Jupiter Inlet

Jupiter, FL

Built: 1860

Construction: Brick, Conical

Status: Active (white, flashing)

Height: 105 feet

Location: East coast of Florida, East of U.S. Highway 1, immediately North of the Loxahatchee & Indian River junction.

Directions: From I-95, take the Jupiter exit and head East on S. R. 706. Continue approximately four miles to the end and turn left. Follow over the drawbridge to U.S. 1. The lighthouse can be seen to the right from the bridge. Turn right just after the bridge and enter the Lighthouse Park.

Photographer: Merle Bishop

Lighthouse History: Offshore of Jupiter Inlet, where the Loxahatchee River flows into the Atlantic Ocean, is Jupiter's reef, a treacherous obstacle dreaded by mariners. As ships approach the Florida peninsula from the East, they must cross the Gulf Stream before heading North. In 1696, North of the inlet, Jonathan Dickinson and his family were shipwrecked on their way from Jamaica to Philadelphia. Once discovered, the 24 survivors were harassed by Indians on their way North to St. Augustine. This was a difficult trip as described in Dickinson's work, "God's Protecting Providence", the first English account of Indians on the Southeast coast. Today, the Jonathan Dickinson State Park was established in commemoration of the man and his companions.

It wasn't until seven years after Florida became a state in 1845, that the Lighthouse Board attempted to make this area of the East coast safer for ships by recommending that a lighthouse be built near the Jupiter inlet. Eight years later, in 1853, the U.S. Congress appropriated $35,000 for the construction of a major Sea-Coast lighthouse at Jupiter Inlet. The site chosen for the lighthouse was part of the Fort Jupiter reservation, established during the Seminole War and located on the North side of the Loxahatchee River.

George G. Meade designed the lighthouse tower for Jupiter inlet. At that time he was a lieutenant in the Bureau of Topographical Engineers. He would later be the Union General who defeated General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Photo courtesy of: U.S. Coast Guard

In 1854, the inlet was closed to vessel traffic by silting. This forced workers to move 500 tons of construction materials down the Indian River using shallow boats. The need to use these smaller vessels increased the time to move the materials and nearly double the original appropriation of funds. The Third Seminole War interrupted work on the lighthouse from 1856 to 1858. Because of this the keeper's house constructed with thick coquina walls and an inside well to withstand a siege. After an expense of more than $60,000 for supplies and labor, the lighthouse was finally completed. The lamp was finally lit just before the Civil War in July 1860.

The 105-foot tower was constructed on an oyster bed with an oyster shell foundation. It's brick walls taper from 31 inches thick at the base to 18 inches near the top. The lantern has glass fitted with astragal and surrounds a First Order Fresnel lens. It produces a flashing white beacon with a lens focal plane of 146 feet above sea level and a visibility range of 25 miles. The conical tower was left a natural brick color for the first 50 years. The lighthouses day-mark was changed to Red with a Black Lantern around 1910.

The light had barely burned when the Civil War had it extinguished. During the war, blockade-runners used Jupiter Inlet to ferry in supplies to the Confederacy, and Union ships attempted to stop them. Southern sympathizers wanted to prevent Union forces from using the lighthouse to find the blockade runners. They asked the keeper to darken the light, but he felt obligated to keep it shining. A group of men, including one of the assistant keepers, then disabled the light and removed the machinery from the tower in 1861 and buried it in Jupiter Creek. These same men took the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne out of service. James Armour, a volunteer coastal pilot on the federal patrol boat Sagamore and a man who knew the area waterways well, was requested by Federal Authorities to find the buried Jupiter Light's apparatus. Once found, he took it to take it by boat to Key West for safekeeping.

Photographer: Merle Bishop

At the end of the war in 1866, the light was reinstated and Captain Armour was appointed head keeper. Armour held the keeper position for 40 years. When married in 1867, he brought his bride to the lighthouse. She was the only white woman for 100 miles. Their daughter, Katherine, was the first white child born in the area and went on to become the wife of the next keeper at the lighthouse.

Maintaining sufficient food supplies was often a difficult, time consuming task. As at other lighthouses, each year authorities supplied the keepers with enough flour to last a year and weevils and worms often infested the flour making it almost inedible. The men used to fish and hunt deer to supplement their food supplies and Indians also sold them food, charging ten cents a pound for venison. Once a year, lonely life was interrupted by a boat that delivered a year's supply of oil, paint, and other goods. The occasional shipwreck also provided goods, for example a sewing machine and several dogs that washed ashore after a storm. Charles W. Pierce wrote about this life in the 1800's in his "Pioneer Life in Southeast Florida" (University of Miami Press, 1970).

A Coast Guard, Life-Saving station was established here in 1885. A screen was also placed around the light to help protect the lantern and the many migrating birds blinded by the light at night, striking the lantern.

The building of a schoolhouse was necessitated with the influx of pioneers. Many of Jupiter's early school teachers married lightkeepers and a number of lighthouse families remained in the area after their service was completed.

A Coast Guard, Life-Saving station was established here in 1885. Many migrating birds also needed rescuing. The birds would be blinded by the light at night and strike the tower. A screen was placed around the light to help protect the birds and the lantern. The building of a schoolhouse was necessitated with the influx of pioneers. Many of Jupiter's early school teachers married lightkeepers and a number of lighthouse families remained in the area after their service was completed.

In 1911, a telegraph station was built on the grounds of the lighthouse. Jupiter was a hub of mid-coast Florida transportation with the Indian River Steamer route ending here and Florida's "Celestial Railroad" beginning here and running through Mars, Venus, and Juno.

In 1928, the old mineral oil lamps and cumbersome weights were removed. The light was electrified and automated with the installation of a diesel generator in case of a power failure. A strong hurricane struck the station that same year, smashing one of the Fresnel lens "bull's-eyes", and disabled the emergency diesel generator. To keep the light burning, keeper Captain Charles Seabrook had to reinstall the old mineral lamps and turn the light by hand. His hand was infected at the time making it difficult. His sixteen-year-old son, Franklin, volunteered to climb the tower in the storm and continue turning the light for him. The boy performed his tasks admirably and kept the lens turning until the generator was repaired two days later. The damaged pieces of the lens "bull's-eye" were collected and sent it to Charleston to be reassembled. Refitting hundreds of prism pieces was no easy task, but the huge First Order Fresnel lens could not be replaced, and its service was indispensable. The shattered magnifying bulls-eye was cemented together and bound with an iron criss-cross framework. The repaired lens continues in service today.

A small cemetery near the station entrance contains the bodies of several Lightkeepers' children - a sober reminder of the hardships suffered by Florida's early pioneers.

Restoration: Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse is owned and maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard as an active aid to navigation and administered by the Florida History Center & Museum. After an extensive restoration in 1999-2000, the lighthouse is open for tours. Tours are given Sunday through Wednesday 10 AM - 4 PM with the last tour departing at 3:15. Meet at the visitor's center/gift shop which is located just outside the gate. They also show a brief film about the history of the lighthouse. There is a fee for the tour.

You can only go inside the lighthouse as part of a guided tour, and each tour takes about 45 minutes to an hour. To go inside the lighthouse you must be at least four feet tall and you must wear shoes with back support (i.e., no flip-flops etc.).

If the museum is closed, distant views of the lighthouse can be had from outside the gate of the museum, from the park on the entrance road, from the bridge over the waterway (watch out for traffic) and from the restaurants on the south side of the inlet. The homes around the base of the lighthouse are housing for Coast Guard personnel -- please be courteous and respect their privacy!

Submitted by: Merle Bishop