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 Ocracoke
Lighthouse
Fact Sheet:
- Completed
- 1823
- Height
to top - (Park Service figures
conflict) either 75 feet, or
65 feet plus lantern room
- Height
to focal plane - 75 ft.
- Beacon
Type - 4th order Fresnel lens
- Beacon
distance - 14 miles (whether nautical or statute not specified by any official source)
- Light
pattern - fixed, continuous,
dusk to dawn
- No.
of lighthouse steps -No official
information. One source states "about
100 steps".
- Open
to public to climb - No. (Keeper's
Quarters and yard inside fence
are off limits. Visitors can
walk in a narrow corridor along
a fence past the Keeper's Quarters
between the street and the
lighthouse. Approximately four
parking spaces are available,
with 15 min. parking limit.)
- Location
- Lighthouse Road past Albert
Styron's Store, south side
of Silver Lake (harbor), Ocracoke
Village.
- Keeper's
Houses - Two-story brick Keeper's
Quarters, not open to public.
- Management
- Beacon operation maintained
by the U.S. Coast Guard. Lighthouse
grounds controlled by National
Park Service.
- How
to get there - (1) From the
ferry dock on Silver Lake take
the drive around the lake to
the south side and turn left
onto Creek Drive just past "The
Castle". Where Creek Drive "Y's" into
Lighthouse Road at Albert Styron's
Store, bear right. Drive slowly
and look to the right for the
lighthouse- sits back off the
road. (2) From Hatteras ferry
dock take NC 12 (the only road)
south to Ocracoke village.
Turn left at the Island Inn
onto Lighthouse Road (last
street on the left before you
run into Silver Lake). Continue
just past Creek Drive on the
right. Look to the right for
the lighthouse - sits back
off the road.
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Thank
goodness the Ocracoke Lighthouse
is on Ocracoke. Any of the "tall" lighthouses
from North Carolina's amazing collection
of coastal beacons would look grossly
out of place next to Silver Lake.
The crude asymmetrical construction
of Ocracoke Lighthouse left it lop-sided,
with its top
and lantern room both off center
(right photo). But, in spite of it's
imperfections, it is a pleasure
to behold. The diagonal
astragal design of the lantern
windows gives its lantern a visual
charm quite apart from the "tall" lighthouses.
The "beehive" shaped
4th Order Fresnel lens gives
its beacon
a warmth that befits the Ocracoke
community.
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Click
thumbnails
for a larger view
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(Stairs
photos by Dennis Coz, Parkman Twp., OH) |
  There
is virtually no official information
available from the National Park
Service or the US Coast Guard about
the inside of the lighthouse.
It is not open for the public to
see or climb. Through acquaintances
in Ocracoke village it has been
learned the lighthouse is opened
on July 4th each year for people
to see inside, and sometimes scout
troops or other special visitors
are permitted inside for a peek.
Still, no one supposedly is allowed
to climb the stairs because they
are in poor condition and quite
wobbly.
These
photos of the stairs (at left and right), show they are similar
in design to the stairs of Cape Lookout
Lighthouse, in that they
look like fan blades or propeller blades spiraling out from a central
pole. The photo
of the stairs (left) provided by Dennis Coz of Parkman Twp.,
OH, is a great view of the metal steps as they spiral up inside
the thick-walled lighthouse. The photo at right, also from Dennis,
shows the
central pole and the thick wall at a window opening. Only a
few brackets, spaced randomly along the stairs, secure it to the
walls. This makes for a very rickety, wobbly installation, particularly
in light of the very slim central pole. It's no wonder the public
is not allowed to climb it. |
 
Little is known about the Keeper's
Quarters. It is not open to the public, and is said to be used as a "private residence".
Whether this is for park service personnel or someone else is not indicated
in any park service information. |
Flash
back 30 years: Things
change on the Outer Banks in 30 years.
Hurricane Isabel's recent rampage
certainly put's the exclamation point
on that bit of news. So it's no surprise
the Ocracoke Lighthouse grounds look
a bit different in 2003 that they
did back in 1973.
The old
sheds that stood along the fence in
front of the Keeper's Quarters (left
side
of photos at right) are now gone.
Back then visitors could walk through
the yard, as evidenced by the photographer's
camera case left in the middle of
the driveway. The second photo shows
a little more
detail of one of the old sheds.
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first photo at right shows a view
framed by a large cedar tree taken
from the east end of the Keeper's
Quarters. Now the grounds are closed,
so you just can't go take a photo
from that spot any longer. Note the
bush between the old "oil storage
shed" and the lighthouse base. It's
now gone. The shed
itself is different
too. The yellow box is now gone,
and the door is no longer green.
In spite of the changes around it,
Ocracoke Lighthouse itself looks
just the same today as it did then. |
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  Compare
the 1973 photos above with these
from 2003 (left & right). The addition
of a boardwalk (far right) affords
handicapped access and helps keep
the grass from being trampled to
death by the crowds. The down side
is that it greatly detracts from
the aesthetics of the view.
OuterBanksGuidebook.com has over 75 views of Ocracoke Lighthouse, more than anywhere else on the web. Many
views are
totally unique, and can only be found at OuterBanksGuidebook.com. |
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Fred Hurteau
OuterBanksGuidebook.com
creator, photographer and
web designer,at
Ocracoke Lighthouse. |
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| Some of these photos are available in the print Gallery. |
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In
September, 2003, just after Hurricane
Isabel, NOAA took aerial photos
of the entire Outer Banks, including
all the lighthouses. In this NOAA photo the board
walk access to Ocracoke
Lighthouse runs along the fence
from the road (lower right corner)
to the lighthouse (upper left corner).
The red-roofed building is the
Keepers Quarters, but it and the
entire property is off limits to
visitors. Standing water (long
dark patch) from Hurricane Isabel
is evident along the boardwalk. |
Many more photos of Ocracoke Lighthouse on page 2. |
| Continue to
Cape Hatteras Lighthouse - Page Two > |
Ocracoke
Lighthouse |
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Navigate
to individual lighthouse pages with these
buttons.
   
Ocracoke Lighthouse
- Page Two
Related Links -
National Park Service Inventory of Historic
Light Stations, NC Lighthouses - Ocracoke
Lighthouse
National Park Service - Ocracoke
Lighthouse
Beautiful
Photos
of
Ocracoke Lighthouse in the Lighthouse Gallery
Beautiful Photos
of
Ocracoke Lighthouse in the Lighthouse
Gallery
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| Visit
these other web sites by Fred Hurteau |
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