Sapelo Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse

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....

 in Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

,
United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, near the southern tip of Sapelo Island

Sapelo Island

Sapelo Island is a state-protected island located in McIntosh County, Georgia. The island is reachable only by airplane or boat, with the primary ferry coming from the Sapelo Island Visitors Center in McIntosh County, Georgia, a seven mile , twenty-minute trip.Approximately 97 percent of the...

, Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

. It is the nation's second-oldest brick lighthouse and the oldest survivor of Winslow Lewis

Winslow Lewis

Winslow Lewis was a sea captain, engineer, inventor and contractor active in the construction of many American lighthouses during the first half of the nineteenth century....

 lighthouse projects.

History

Sapelo Island Lighthouse was built in 1820. It was designed and built by Winslow Lewis. It had a fifteen Lewis lamps with 16 in (40.6 cm) reflectors. In the 1850s, the tower was raised by 10 ft (3 m) and a fourth-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...

 was installed in 1854. During the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, the lens was removed. It was extensively repaired after a 1867 storm and relit in 1868. The tower was damaged by a hurricane in 1898.

The lighthouse was replaced in 1905 by the a pyramidal 100 ft (30.5 m) skeletal tower

Skeletal tower

Skeletal Frame Light Towers are lighthouse towers that have only an open frame. They are commonly built as aids to navigation; most of them are not considered to be lighthouses. However, during the late nineteenth century and the first years of the twentieth, larger skeletal towers were installed...

 with a third-oder Fresnel lens. This tower was dismantled and relocated in 1934 to South Fox Island, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

.

Sapelo Island Lighthouse was inactive from 1905 to 1998, and is now privately maintained and unofficial. The original lighthouse was renovated to its 1890 appearance in 1998 when it was relit.