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Chances are the title of this story has you thinking about that small but highly important part of a light station, the building that the keepers, their families, and visitors too sought out night and day, month in and month out. You are probably picturing the “privy,” the “biffy,” the station “restroom” during the decades of pre-plumbing life. If so, you are thinking of the wrong house. There was another such “little house” there too, not far from the light tower, that was perhaps more important from the lighthouse operation standpoint. This was the “Oil House,” built to store the flammable liquid oil used to fuel the lamps both in the tower and in the home of the keeper and other station buildings as well.
The earliest lights used to give guidance to mariners were simply open fires built in high places or on high towers. By the time the first lighthouse in what would become the United States was built in Boston harbor, lamps that contained the flame of a burning fuel were the standard lighting fixture that lit the world. Oils made from plant and animal sources were used for decades if not centuries. Truth be told, many of these were poor illuminants and often hard to even ignite yet alone keep burning, especially through long, cold, and damp nights, a common situation at the seaside locations of lighthouses. The industrialization of pumping petroleum oils from the earth in the mid-1800s, and the development of innumerous by-products from that oil, revolutionized lighting world-wide, and lighthouse illumination was part of that revolution.
“Mineral oil,” or kerosene as it came to be more commonly termed, was one of those many petroleum products, and its abundance and consequent low cost, compared to the scarcer and more costly oils used earlier, soon made it the fuel of choice for the far-flung stations of the Light-House Establishment. It came with another kind of price, however – fear. When it was first introduced, its much greater flammability and ease of ignition, compared with the earlier whale/ lard/colza oils that had long been in use, made it a substance greatly respected, if not out-rightly feared. Arnold Burges Johnson, in his 1889 book The Modern Light-House Service, describes it as “volatile, inflammable, and explosive.” This simple fact is the very reason that separate fire-proof oil houses were mandated by the lighthouse system. Storing the lamp fuel in the light towers or in the typically adjacent work rooms as was commonly done was no longer a safe practice.
Light-House Establishment correspondence as early as 1807 discusses the use of “earth oil” which was known to produce a strong, clear, and bright flame. It had the unfortunate quality of producing “great volumes of smoke,” likely the reason nothing came of such knowledge in that era. As early as 1855, scientists of the fledgling Light-House Board, always on the search for brighter, more efficient, and more economical lamp fuels, had been experimenting with various petroleum products. It was not until 1877, however, that the first use of kerosene as a lighthouse fuel is reported [“Chronology of Aids To Navigation 1716-1939” by Coast Guard Historian Truman Strobridge]. For some time the use of kerosene was only permitted with Fresnel lenses of the 3rd order or smaller. Those in charge were still unwilling to endanger the larger and much more costly 1st and 2nd order lenses should fire or explosion occur in the lantern room. The first use of kerosene within a 1st order Fresnel lens was at Navesink, New Jersey, in 1883; by 1885, it had become the principal illuminant in use at stations across the U.S.
The total gallons of kerosene used by the Lighthouse Establishment in 1880 was 48,500 gallons. This had increased to 332,000 gallons by 1889. At that time kerosene sold for 8.5 cents per gallon as compared to 57 cents per gallon for lard oil [Johnson]. The economics of it alone assured that kerosene was the lamp fuel of the future.
There were indeed some tragic episodes, due more likely to keeper carelessness than to the inherent danger of the kerosene used. Johnson’s book tells of an unidentified Lake Michigan keeper who had without approval substituted a kerosene lamp for the then still regulation lard oil lamp. Attempting to extinguish this lamp by blowing down the chimney resulted in an explosion. The keeper raced down the staircase with his clothing on fire when a second explosion blew the whole lantern from the tower. Today we know that kerosene is not nearly as volatile a fuel as gasoline and some other petroleum products. It isn’t easy to ignite a puddle of kerosene with a match. That knowledge had not yet been gained by the light keepers of the late 1800s, and so the hearty respect with which it was regarded was wise policy.
Exactly when the Light-House Board directed the construction of separate fire-proof oil houses at each station is unclear to this author. An 1884 letter from John Newton, then the Chairman of the Board’s Committee on Engineering, to Admiral Stephen Rowan, the Board Chairman, reported that the committee had approved a standard plan for a brick oil house. The Annual Report of the Board for 1887 stated: “ . . . in view of the danger which necessarily follows upon the use of mineral oil as an illuminant, it is thought that an isolated fire-proof structure for the storing of its supplies of oil should be provided at all light stations.” Note this is not a mandate but rather a suggestion.
The Annual Report of the Board for 1899 includes the following statement regarding the Ninth (Great Lakes) District: “Few stations have independent and fire-proof oil houses. It is proposed, as rapidly as the funds can be provided, to construct these at all of the stations where the conditions are such as to make it practicable.” Further mention is found in the 1902 edition of “Instructions To Light-Keepers” (Section 1, Paragraph 37) which states: “All mineral oil belonging to the Light-House Service shall be kept in an oil house or room by itself. The oil house shall be visited daily to detect loss by leakage or otherwise, and every precaution taken for the safe keeping of the oil.” By 1902, mineral oil had already been in use for many years at most stations, and many oil houses long predate 1902. The recommendation to provide such structures, if not an actual directive to do so, was being implemented by the various district officials.
Conversely, it should be noted that many stations that had been using kerosene for years didn’t actually get a separate oil house for many years after this new fuel was in use. The 1899 reference above directed their construction as “rapidly as the funds can be provided.” Then, as now, government agencies weren’t always prompt in providing funding for the tasks they mandated. By 1918, almost all land-based light stations had a separate oil house. The earliest yet determined date of a separate oil house is 1887, when the one at Ponce de Leon Inlet, Florida was built. Construction dates for a sampling of other stations are as follows: St. Simons, GA 1890; Cana Island, WI 1890; Devil’s Island, WI 1891; West Quoddy, ME 1892; Assateague, VA 1892; Michigan Island, WI 1894; Au Sable, MI 1895; Fort Point, ME 1897; Burnt Island, ME 1899; Ontonagon, MI 1901; Raspberry Island, W, 1901; Little River, ME 1905.
Lighthouse towers are built of a great variety of materials. So too are the oil houses that served them. The greatest number of them are constructed of brick, a common building material found on the exterior, and/or on the interior lining as well, of numerous towers short and tall. Many of the photos accompanying this article illustrate brick construction. Field stone or quarried stone oil houses are occasionally found. The one at Maine’s Little River station was built with stone used in the original keeper’s residence. Many of the oil houses at light stations on the Great Lakes are made of iron sheets bolted or riveted together. These are round in shape, with a conical roof, and were lined with brick, enhancing their structural stability as well. All of these materials are of course fire proof, in keeping with the purpose of these structures. A ventilation device was a common feature on the roofs to eliminate the possible buildup of fumes inside.
Most oil houses were in fact “little,” perhaps eight feet wide by ten feet long if not smaller. Perhaps the largest and most fortress-like is found at the Split Rock, Minnesota station. The oil house there measures 15-feet 6-inches wide by 19-feet 3-inches long, and is 11-feet high from grade to cornice. Specifications for this building, constructed in 1910 along with the other station components, called for reinforced concrete walls, floor, and even the roof. A two-inch thick concrete slab on reinforced rafters was the roof specified by lighthouse engineer Ralph Tinkham. The walls were specified at ten-inches thick, including a two-inch air-space between the inner and outer half of the walls. A steel entrance door was called for. A 12-inch globe ventilator was specified for the roof along with four cast iron ventilators in the walls of the building. Even engineer Tinkham must have realized that he had perhaps over designed, as the slab roof was never put on the building, but these specifications only confirm the great concern that the Light-House Establishment had for storing all that hazardous kerosene.
Whatever they were made of, by the early 1900s all were fitted out with a series of shelves onto which the containers of delivered oil, which by then came in standard sized cans, would fit to maximize the storage capacity of the building. A 1911 description of the Ponce de Leon Inlet station noted that the oil house contained wooden shelves that could accommodate 600 five-gallon kerosene tins in boxed containers. At that time, at that station, kerosene was delivered in boxes that each contained two two-and-one-half-gallon cans. Many oil houses still contain their shelves and they can be seen in several of the accompanying photographs. The coming of reliable electricity to light stations put an end to the era of kerosene lamps and the original purpose of the oil house was negated. They continued to be used as storage for other flammables such as paint, or simply as another work/storage space, taking on new names such as “the paint locker.” The oil house at Assateague Island, Virginia even served as a bunkhouse for visiting Coast Guard staff in the 1940s.
So now you know about those “little houses out back.”
This story appeared in the
Mar/Apr 2015 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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