Buffalo (main) Light
Encyclopedia
Buffalo Light is a lighthouse
at the mouth of Buffalo River
/Erie canal
, directly across from the Erie basin marina, underneath the skyway in downtown Buffalo, New York
.
and cast iron
. The shape of the tower was octagonal and was 60 feet high. The lens installed in 1857 was a third order Fresnel lens
. The lens was later removed to the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.
This 60 feet (18.3 m), octagonal limestone structure is the oldest still standing in its original location in the city of Buffalo. It replaced the original 1818 light on this site along the Lake Erie shore at the mouth of the Buffalo River. Presently, it is part of an outdoor museum located on the grounds of the United States Coast Guard
Station.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
In 2010, the Coast Guard announced it would relinquish 4.6 of its 31 acres on the point and Congressman Brian Higgins obtained over $6 million to reconfigure the Coast Guard station to allow public access to the lighthouse. In April of 2011, Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation approved a grant of $170,700 to repair and restore the lighthouse in anticipation of public tours. The work was completed in August 2011.
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
at the mouth of Buffalo River
Buffalo River (New York)
The Buffalo River is a river that empties into the eastern end of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, by the City of Buffalo in the United States of America. This stream is called the Buffalo River only in the vicinity of the city and is known as Buffalo Creek as it flows through other parts of...
/Erie canal
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of...
, directly across from the Erie basin marina, underneath the skyway in downtown Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
.
History
The lighthouse was established and lit in 1833 and was deactivated in 1914. The foundation material was stone molehead and the lighthouse was constructed out of limestoneLimestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
and cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
. The shape of the tower was octagonal and was 60 feet high. The lens installed in 1857 was a third order Fresnel lens
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...
. The lens was later removed to the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.
This 60 feet (18.3 m), octagonal limestone structure is the oldest still standing in its original location in the city of Buffalo. It replaced the original 1818 light on this site along the Lake Erie shore at the mouth of the Buffalo River. Presently, it is part of an outdoor museum located on the grounds of the United States Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
Station.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
In 2010, the Coast Guard announced it would relinquish 4.6 of its 31 acres on the point and Congressman Brian Higgins obtained over $6 million to reconfigure the Coast Guard station to allow public access to the lighthouse. In April of 2011, Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation approved a grant of $170,700 to repair and restore the lighthouse in anticipation of public tours. The work was completed in August 2011.
Further reading
- Oleszewski, Wes. Great Lakes Lighthouses, American and Canadian: A Comprehensive Directory/Guide to Great Lakes Lighthouses, (Gwinn, Michigan: Avery Color Studios, Inc., 1998) ISBN 0-932212-98-0.
- U.S. Coast Guard. Historically Famous Lighthouses (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1957).
- Wright, Larry and Wright, Patricia. Great Lakes Lighthouses Encyclopedia Hardback (Erin: Boston Mills Press, 2006) ISBN 1550463993
External links
- Buffalo Main Light - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com
- Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society website
- Buffalo Lighthouse, Buffalo Harbor, Buffalo River & Lake Erie, Buffalo, Erie County, NY: 7 drawings, 2 photos, 5 data pages, and 1 photo caption page at Historic American Building Survey
- Inventory of Historic Light Stations--New York--Buffalo (Main) Light
- Buffalo Main Light, By Colt Edin & Dave Wobser
- Buffalo Lighthouse, Coast Guard Base across from the Erie Basin Marina - Buffalo as an Architectural Museum website
- Buffalo Light: Guardian of the Harbor, Buffalo History Works website
- Buffalo Main Lighthouse