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Photo, Print, Drawing Cape Lookout Light Station, Cape Lookout, Carteret County, NC Cape Lookout National Seashore

View 2 images in sequence.
[ Drawings from Survey HABS NC-203  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS NC-203  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Cape Lookout Light Station, Cape Lookout, Carteret County, NC

Other Title

  • Cape Lookout National Seashore

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Whiting, William Henry Chase
  • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
  • U.S. Lighthouse Service
  • U.S. Coast Guard
  • Schara, Mark, project manager
  • Davidson, Paul, field team
  • Doddington, L. Naomi, field team
  • Pierce, Ryan, field team
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  light stations
  • -  aids to navigation
  • -  navigation
  • -  lighthouses
  • -  keeper's houses
  • -  summer kitchens
  • -  war (Civil War)
  • -  maritime
  • -  North Carolina--Carteret County--Cape Lookout

Latitude / Longitude

  • 34.622754,-76.524549

Notes

  • -  Significance: The construction of a lighthouse, to guide ships around the dangerous shoals at Cape Lookout, was authorized by the U. S. Congress in 1804. After several years of delay, the contract was finally let in 1811. The resulting circular brick tower, 93 feet in height from the top of its stone foundation to the floor of its lantern, and adjacent wood frame keeper's dwelling, were completed in 1812. The lighthouse was painted with horizontal red and white stripes. By the time of a special 1851 government report concerning the state of the nation's lighthouses, the inadequacy of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse, due to its short height, had become apparent. In 1857, Captain William Henry Chase Whiting of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, produced a drawing from a standardized plan for the construction of a new Cape Lookout Lighthouse. Construction was begun the following year ( omitting the proposed attached oil house), and the new lighthouse, with a 150-foot-high focal plane and a first­order Fresnel lens, was lit on 1 November 1859. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, all of the lighthouses along the North Carolina coast were extinguished. The Cape Lookout Lighthouse's Fresnel lens was removed, first to Beaufort and eventually to Raleigh, where it was not recovered by Union troops until 1865. By April 1862, the Union army had captured the Outer Banks and, in 1863, a third-order Fresnel lens was installed in the Cape Lookout Lighthouse. On 3 April 1864, a daring Confederate raid attempted to destroy the lighthouse, detonating kegs of powder at its base. Although damaged, the lighthouse was relit within two weeks. Following the war, repairs were made to the lighthouse, and the first-order lens reinstalled by June 1867. In 1873, a new brick double Keepers' Dwelling was constructed to the north of the lighthouse. That same year, the Cape Lookout Lighthouse received its distinctive black-and-white diamond daymark pattern. A second, wood frame, Keeper's Dwelling was built in 1907, with an adjacent summer kitchen. In 1914, the Lighthouse's gallery was replaced and widened. In 1933, a radio tower was constructed, and the Summer Kitchen converted into a radio shack and battery house. With the discontinuation of the U.S. Lighthouse Service in 1939, jurisdiction for the Cape Lookout Light Station was assumed by the U. S. Coast Guard. Following the outbreak of World War II, the coastal lighthouses were once again darkened, although they continued in use as observation posts. In 1950, generators were installed in the first landing of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse to electrify its light, obviating the need for an on-site keeper. The 1907 Keeper's Dwelling was subsequently moved to a location farther south in the mid-1950s. Cape Lookout National Seashore was established by Congress as a unit of the National Park Service in 1966, although the Coast Guard retained possession of the Lighthouse. In 1976, the first-order Fresnel lens was removed, and replaced with two 24-inch rotating aero beacons. Underwater electrical cables were laid to the Lighthouse in 1982. In 2003, jurisdiction for the Lighthouse was transferred to the National Park Service.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N2296
  • -  Survey number: HABS NC-203
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1857-1859 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1867 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1873 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1907 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1914 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1933 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1950 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1976 Subsequent Work
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 72000097, 00000692

Medium

  • Measured Drawing(s): 2

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS NC-203

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • nc0609

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS NC-203
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

If Digital Images Are Displaying

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  • Data Pages
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  • Visit the Prints & Photographs Reading Room and request to view the group (general information about service in the reading room is available at: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/info/001_ref.html). It is best to contact reference staff in advance (see: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/address.html) to make sure the material is on site. OR
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    • No, the item is not digitized. Please go to #2.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, William Henry Chase Whiting, U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers, U.S. Lighthouse Service, U.S. Coast Guard, Mark Schara, Paul Davidson, L. Naomi Doddington, and Ryan Pierce. Cape Lookout Light Station, Cape Lookout, Carteret County, NC. Cape Lookout Carteret County North Carolina, 1933. translateds by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/nc0609/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Whiting, W. H. C., U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers, U.S. Lighthouse Service, U.S. Coast Guard, Schara, M. [...] Pierce, R. (1933) Cape Lookout Light Station, Cape Lookout, Carteret County, NC. Cape Lookout Carteret County North Carolina, 1933. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/nc0609/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al. Cape Lookout Light Station, Cape Lookout, Carteret County, NC. trans by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/nc0609/>.