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The National Park Service has kicked off a $4.5 million project to restore the deteriorating 1876 Tortugas Harbor Lighthouse, which is located at Fort Jefferson, about 70 miles west of Key West, Florida.
Although the National Park Service has overseen seven decades of various repairs to the lighthouse, it was never enough. The iron-platted lighthouse that sits atop historic Fort Jefferson is suffering from corroded iron that has led to significant deterioration of the tower, especially at its base.
The restoration will take place in three phases:
Phase 1 – A restoration team from Stone and Lime, Inc. will disassemble the iron lighthouse piece-by-piece and then transport the sections to the Florida mainland.
Phase 2 – Metal conservation and repair of the structure will take place at the facilities of subcontractor Robinson Iron in Alexander City, Alabama.
Phase 3 – The final phase will be the reassembly of the lighthouse in its original location with the work being done by Jablonski Building Conservation.
The entire restoration of the Tortugas Lighthouse, which was deactivated in 1921, and was previously known as the Garden Key Lighthouse, is expected to take one year. Because of its location at Fort Jefferson, which is located within the boundaries of the Dry Tortugas National Park, the lighthouse is often referred to as the Fort Jefferson Lighthouse.
This story appeared in the
Jan/Feb 2021 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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