 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Currituck
Beach Lighthouse
Fact Sheet:
- Completed
- (activated) Dec. 1, 1875
- Height
to top - 162 ft.
- Height
to focal plane - 158 ft.
- Beacon
Type - First order Polygonal Fresnel lens, 1000 watt light
- Beacon
distance - 18-19 nautical miles (about 16.5 statute miles)
- Light
pattern - On 3 sec./Off 17 sec. - dusk to dawn
- No. of
lighthouse steps - 214
- Open to
public to climb - Yes (approx. Easter through Thanksgiving)
- Location
- Corolla: 36° 22'36" N latitude, 75° 49'51'W
longitude
(at beacon - N 36.37684 W 75.83069
or 36° 22'14.44"N 75° 49'50.48")
- Keeper's
House - Not open to public. The only surviving Victorian
stick style grand Double Keepers Quarters of three ever
built by the U.S. Lighthouse Board. Exterior restored.
Interior
mostly restored, but not period furnished at this time.
- Management
- Beacon operation maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard. Lighthouse
and grounds owned by the non-profit group Outer
Banks Conservationists, Inc.
- How to
get there - From US 158 at Martin's Point (between Kitty
Hawk and Southern Shores), take Highway 12 north 21.5 miles
to Corolla. Turn left into the Whalehead Club entrance and
then right at the "guard house". This drive takes you around
to the lighthouse parking and entrance. Or you can turn left
just past the Whalehead Club entrance onto Corolla Village
Road between the Whalehead Club and the lighthouse.
|
 Currituck
Beach Lighthouse is certainly the most elegant of North Carolina's
lighthouses. It was the third of three lighthouses built under
the skilled supervision of Dexter Stetson, who was construction
forman for the Cape Hatteras and Bodie Island lighthouses as
well. As fate would have it, construction on Currituck Beach
Lighthouse had only begun the year Cape Lookout, Cape Hatteras
and Bodie Island received their black and white markings. So
Currituck was spared from the painters brush, and stands today
as bare red brick. But it's this very distinction that not only
lets us see what the others once looked like, but allows the
architectural dignity and detail of this brick marvel to be appreciated.
 |
| Currituck's
beacon pierces
a foggy, rainy night. Note the beams project only to the east toward the ocean. |
|
 Currituck
Beach Lighthouse (or Light Station if
you prefer) is completely surrounded by trees
so
close they almost touch it. The quiet landscaped
location feels as though this is somebody's
home that just happens to have a great lighthouse
in the back yard, instead of it being a huge
impersonal lighthouse towering over a building
where the keeper just happens to stay.
The red brick tower accented with stone has a personality
and an elegant warmth that is greatly enhanced by the well-kept keeper's house snuggled
next to it. It just feels like home. I believe I enjoyed visiting this lighthouse
more than any of the others. The personal attention of the staff made me feel important.
But I could see that the same friendly courtesies were extended to all the visitors
around me. This was a completely different experience from all the other lighthouse
visits. That's not to say that there were no friendly, helpful and courteous people
at any of the other lighthouses, because there were. It's just that at the other
lighthouses I felt like a visitor. At Currituck Beach Lighthouse I felt like a guest. |
|
|
Like
Bodie Island, this lighthouse has a First
Order Fresnel lens. When lit with its 1000 watt lamp, it provides
a comforting
site against the deep blue of a cool night sky. On a
foggy night the beacon's eastward orientation becomes evident. |
 |
 |
| Currituck's
First Order Fresnel lens. |
 |
 |
| These photos show that some
of the elements are not present at the top and bottom on the west side of the Fresnel lens
(left of images). |
The
upper and lower lens elements are present only on the east
side of this non-rotating Fresnel lens, shown in the photos at left.
Alt Though the beacon is
visible
from
all
directions, the Fresnel lens elements focus the light into an
array of beams projected eastward toward the ocean, providing
greater visible range over the Atlantic.
Much less visibility range is needed
to the west because Currituck Sound is only about seven miles
wide, and the lighthouse was never meant to be a warning to vessels
on
the sound. Its purpose was to warn ships on the Atlantic to stay
away from the coast line, and to help them identify their location
by referencing the lighthouse. |
  The
lighthouse is a virtual twin in it's design and construction to
Bodie Island Lighthouse. Comparing these images below of the workroom/entrance
to those from the Bodie Island Lighthouse pages makes this quite
evident. The layout inside the workroom building and the detail
of the construction
inside and outside the lighthouses are identical in almost every
respect.
The granite arch over the entrance says "1873", the year construction
began. The eave brackets, the brackets supporting the entrance
roof, and the Victorian stick decoration over the entrance look
identical to those of Bodie Island's workroom. Everything was true
to the Victorian spirit. Even the hinges on the entrance door are
ornately decorated, as shown in the far right photo below.
|
The
south workroom is now used as an office for ticket sales to climb
the lighthouse. The north
workroom is shown in the panoramic photo
at left. It contains a display of information and historical items.
The photo at immediate right shows the view
up the entrance hall,
looking up the steps to the "well" inside
the base of the lighthouse. At far right is the view
from the "well" looking down
the
hallway to the entrance. Note the hall floor is tiled in black and white marble,
just like the Cape Hatteras and Bodie Island Lighthouses.The
hall
ceiling is high and arched, giving the feeling of great space.
The
"well" is seen at right, viewed from the first flight of stairs, looking out to the
entrance hall. It is a circular depression in the center of the floor. The weights
that powered the beacon rotating mechanism were lowered into the "well" for servicing
of the mechanism or cable. They worked similar to the weights that are wound up
to run a grandfather clock.
 |
| Waiting to climb |
 |
Click any thumbnail for a larger view. |
Stair
construction is identical to Bodie Island Lighthouse,
as
well as the railing and banister design details. Individual risers bolt together
to
form
the staircase, a technique first seen in the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. But unlike
Cape Hatteras which has alternating landings, both Currituck Beach Lighthouse and Bodie Island Lighthouse stairs
have landings all on the same side. This allows a wonderful view up the center of
the stairwell, as seen in the photos looking up the stairs (lower left), and looking
down (lower right).
 The
rings attached to the edge of each landing in the photos at left are the guides for
the cable which held the weight that powered the beacon rotating mechanism. The far
right
photo shows one of the large museum quality informational and historical displays
about Currituck Beach Lighthouse, the Keeper's Quarters, the invention of the Fresnel
lens, and about lighthouses in general. These are located on the first floor, and
the first two landings.
 
One detail that is surely missed by most visitors is the interesting
glass skylights in
the floor of the lantern room. These are seen above the last flight of stairs
as you reach the door leading out to the gallery. Since this flight of stairs
wraps
around the mechanical room, which is encased in metal, no light reaches here
from the lower windows in the lighthouse. These skylights let in daylight from
above,
and also allow the beacon light to illuminate this last flight of steps at
night. At right is a photo of those same skylights viewed from the lantern room, inset into the floor.
This
is but another example of the detail and workmanship that went into the construction
of not only this lighthouse, but Bodie Island and Cape Hatteras lighthouses as well.
The large cable in the photo is a grounding cable for the lighting rod. |
 
Once
you reach the top of Currituck Beach Lighthouse, you find that the view is
well worth the climb.
The barrier island is narrow here, affording spectacular views of both the
sound
and
the ocean, as exemplified at left in the photo
looking south. On a clear day with good binoculars you can see more
than 15 miles south beyond Duck, perhaps as far as Southern Shores. In
the original large format photo if the image at left, the water tower
at Duck is easily identified, as is another water tower and other structures
farther south that have not yet been researched for an identity.
 Looking northeast
over the village of
Corolla in the photo at right, the residences along the beach appear
to end. This is where the north end of NC Hwy. 12 terminates at a beach
access ramp. It is also where the
horse
fence crosses the island from sound to ocean, to keep the wild horses
safe from the dangers of traffic along NC 12. North of here is 4WD traffic
only. The only highway is the beach, and the only roads are dirt and
sand to reach many more homes farther north in the communities of Swan
Beach, North Swan Beach and Carova. To learn more about this area north,
read about "Finding
The Wild Horses of Corolla".
  Looking south again, the next door neighbor to
the lighthouse grounds is the historic Whalehead
Club property, now being
restored and operated by Currituck County as a recreational and historic
area. This provides an additional scenic gem to appreciate from atop
the lighthouse, as well as some great vistas
of the lighthouse from the Whalehead Club grounds.
|
This aerial view, courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, will provide a good visual orientation between the lighthouse property and Whalehead Club grounds. In September, 2003, just after Hurricane Isabel, NOAA took
aerial photos of the entire Outer Banks, including all the lighthouses. Though these photos have been reduced somewhat, they are
still quite large.
 |
The thumbnail at left is
actual size and was "cropped" from the large photo. The full image shows
Currituck Beach Lighthouse and the entire Whalehead Club property next to
it.
In this image, the far left gray object is the duplex Keepers Quarters.
The tan object in the center is the lighthouse. The lighthouse
shadow stretches from the lighthouse toward the right side of the image. |
|
Next,
the unique beauty of the Currituck Beach Light Station is
revealed in the immaculate landscaping and Victorian Keeper's
house. OuterBanksGuidebook.com is
very pleased to bring you exclusive photos of
some of the interior of this grand duplex Keeper's house on the next page. |
Continue to
Currituck Beach Lighthouse - Page Two > |
Currituck
Beach
Lighthouse |
 |
|
Navigate to individual
lighthouse pages with these buttons.
   
Currituck Beach Lighthouse
- Page
Two
Related Links -
Scenic Places -
Historic Corolla
Official Currituck
Beach Lighthouse web site
Inside
the Fresnel Lens - National Park Service photos
National Park Service Inventory of Historic Light Stations, NC Lighthouses
- Currituck
Beach Light
Beautiful
Photos
of
Currituck Beach Lighthouse in the Lighthouse Gallery
Beautiful Photos
of
Currituck Beach Lighthouse in the Lighthouse Gallery
|
|
|
|
| Visit
these other web sites by Fred Hurteau |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
|
