Alligator Reef Lighthouse History

Alligator Reef was named for the 1822 wreck of the USS Alligator, a 12-gun schooner that was used to combat the slave trade.

A lighthouse on Alligator Reef was first suggested in 1857. Other more critical lighthouse projects and the Civil War held up funding for the lighthouse until 1870.

The light was completed and first lit on November 23, 1873. The iron lighthouse contained a first order lens that showed five white flashes and one red flash every 30 seconds. The total cost of the lighthouse was $185,000.

The first major hurricane to hit the lighthouse occurred in 1876. The storm vibrated the top of the tower badly enough to cause the lens to rotate at an irregular speed. The same storm washed the boats off the lighthouse's platforms.

The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 also came ashore near the lighthouse. This storm was one of the worst ever recorded in the western hemisphere. It killed over 400 people on the nearby keys. Winds of over 20 miles per hour jammed the iron shutters of the lighthouse closed, destroyed interior wooden doors and broke every window except one. Stone from a bridge four miles away was washed onto the lower platform Despite the damage to the lighthouse, the keepers were uninjured.

Alligator Reef Light remained manned until 1963. Its lens was removed from the lighthouse in the late 1970's and replaced for a time with solar powered flash tubes. The flash tubes proved unreliable and were replaced in 1966 with a 190mm rotating plastic optic.