North Point Light Explained

North Point Lighthouse Museum
Location:	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Coordinates:	43.0656°N -87.8714°W
Yearlit:	1888
Yeardeactivated:	1994
Foundation:	Concrete
Construction:	Cast Iron (1888) / Steel (1912)
Shape:	Octagonal
Lens:	Fourth order Fresnel lens
Module:	Embed: yes North Point Lighthouse Museum Added: July 19, 1984 Mpsub: U.S. Coast Guard Lighthouses and Light Stations on the Great Lakes TR Refnum: 84003732

The North Point Lighthouse Museum is a lighthouse built in 1888 in Lake Park on the East Side of Milwaukee in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States to mark the entrance to the Milwaukee River. The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.^[1] It was also added to the Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey as survey HABS WI-358.

History

The first lighthouse on this bluff was built in 1855, a structure of Cream City brick with a cast iron lantern room, sited high to make it visible out on Lake Michigan. In the late 1880s it was jeopardized by erosion of the bluff and plans were made to replace it.^[2]

In 1888 a 40-foot cast-iron lighthouse tower was built 100 feet in from the edge of the bluff, and the Queen Anne-style light keeper's quarters was built. The original 1855 lantern room was used on the new 1888 tower. Eventually trees in the park obstructed the light from the view of ships, so in 1912 the tower was dismantled and a riveted steel addition was erected and the original 1888 section was placed on top raising its height to ^[2] and light focal plane to . Today, it is the only lighthouse in the country built of three separate lighthouses: the 1855, 1888, and 1912 ones.

The first 1888 lantern burned mineral oil. It was converted to coal gas in 1912 and electrified in 1929. The lens focused a 1,300,000 candlepower signal visible for .^[3] The Coast Guard decommissioned the lighthouse in 1994. In 2003 Milwaukee County leased the lighthouse and keepers quarters to the North Point Lighthouse Friends and they began restoration of the tower and keepers quarters. A $984,000 grant was used to restore the light station and it re-opened to the public as a maritime museum in 2007.

See also

• Lighthouses in the United States
• Parks of Milwaukee

Further reading

• Havighurst, Walter (1943) The Long Ships Passing: The Story of the Great Lakes, Macmillan Publishers.
• Oleszewski, Wes, Great Lakes Lighthouses, American and Canadian: A Comprehensive Directory/Guide to Great Lakes Lighthouses, (Gwinn, Michigan: Avery Color Studios, Inc., 1998) .
• Web site: Seeing the Light: Lighthouses on the western Great Lakes. Pepper, Terry.
• Sapulski, Wayne S., (2001) Lighthouses of Lake Michigan: Past and Present (Paperback) (Fowlerville: Wilderness Adventure Books) ; .
• Wright, Larry and Wright, Patricia, Great Lakes Lighthouses Encyclopedia Hardback (Erin: Boston Mills Press, 2006) .

External links

• North Point Lighthouse Friends, Inc.
• Seeing the light
• Lighthouse friends article
• NPS Inventory of Historic Light Stations - Wisconsin
• Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey Survey number HABS WI-358
• North Point Light.

Notes and References

1. Web site: North Point Lighthouse. January 2012 . Wisconsin Historical Society. 2020-01-20.
2. Web site: [{{NRHP url|id=84003732}} HAER Inventory: North Point Lighthouse]. Department of the Interior. Charles K. Hyde. 1979-07-09. 2020-01-20.
3. United States Coast Guard, Milwaukee County Historical Society, sign by lighthouse