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Fort Gratiot Lighthouse

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1829, Lucius Lyon; 1861 light raised; 1875 lightkeeper's house. 2800 Omar St.
  • (Photograph by Balthazar Korab)

Located at the confluence of Lake Huron and the St. Clair River, this lighthouse was the first built on Lake Huron and is the oldest standing in Michigan. The present light replaces one erected in 1825 but destroyed by a storm in 1828. It is a white-painted, conical, brick tower built by Lyon (1800–1851), an engineer and land surveyor who worked for the U.S. Surveyor General. In 1861 the light was raised twenty feet to its present height of eighty-six feet. Representative of early light stations, the double lightkeeper's house, built in 1874–1875, stands next to the light tower. It is a plain red brick two-story house capped by a jerkinhead roof. Awaiting a structural assessment and repairs, the lighthouse closed to visitors in 2008. In 2010 the light station transferred to St. Clair County, which, in partnership with the Port Huron Museum, will manage and use it. Huron, a floating lightship (launched 1920, Consolidated Shipbuilding Corporation) aided transportation on the Great Lakes. It was assigned to Lake Huron station in 1936, decommissioned in 1970, and moved in 1971 to Pine Grove Park. It is a National Historic Landmark.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Kathryn Bishop Eckert
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Data

What's Nearby

Blue Water Bridge–First Span (Blue Water 1)
Blue Water Bridge–Second Span (Blue Water 2)
Hill Devendorf, PC (Modern Maccabees Temple/Ladies of the Modern Maccabees Temple)
McMorran Place
Port Huron Municipal Office Center

Citation

Kathryn Bishop Eckert, "Fort Gratiot Lighthouse", [Port Huron, Michigan], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-SC12.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Michigan

Buildings of Michigan, Kathryn Bishop Eckert. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 349-350.

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