South Bass Island Lighthouse
From July 1897 to October 1962, the South Bass Light Station provided guidance to ships on Lake Erie. Situated between lighthouses at Green Island to the west and Marblehead to the east, the South Bass Island Station was a navigation point on the lake's south passage. In 1962, the U.S. Coast Guard installed an automated light at South Bass, and in 1967 the U.S. government transferred ownership of the lighthouse, its outbuildings and two acres of land to The Ohio State University, which uses the structures for educational purposes. The lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
Many of the records of the South Bass lighthouse construction, modifications and operation were lost in a fire in Washington, D.C., but certain facts can be obtained from other sources.
First mention of the lighthouse appears in the 1893 report of the U.S. Lighthouse Board, which indicates a plan for a lighthouse on South Bass Island but which did not include appropriations for construction. In 1894, the board authorized construction at a cost not to exceed $8,600. On May 18, 1895, Alfred and Mary Parker signed an indenture to sell their property at the extreme southwest corner of South Bass Island (recorded as Put-in-Bay Island) to the U.S. government for construction of a light station. The two acres, commonly known as Parker's Point, were sold for $1,000.
The 1896 report indicates that a contract is being prepared for a brick dwelling, tower and woodshed, and that metalwork for a fireproof oil house had already been furnished. Construction was delayed for some months as bidders failed to execute required bonds and new efforts to award the contract were rejected as being over the allocated funding. Finally, construction was approved by use of "hired labor and open market purchase of material." The report also notes that the "illuminating apparatus, a fourth-order lens, was installed in the tower lantern. The oil house was also completed in 1897, and the light at the station first lit on July 10, 1897.
Unlike the stereotypical lighthouse with a huge tower and small detached keeper's quarters, South Bass Island Lighthouse contained two and one half stories of living space, a full basement, and an attached tower. The red brick, slate roofed Queen Anne style home had many modern amenities, including a laundry room, kitchen range, hot water reservoir, furnace, cistern, and hydraulic force pump. The 60-foot tower was fitted with a fourth order $1,500 Fresnel lens, which in 1910 was reported to emit a fixed red light visible for 13 miles. The lighthouse, which contained no fog signal, operated daily from early March through late December. The ten-sided lantern is reported to have come from Gibralter, Michigan, and the Fresnel lens from France. The iron and glass lantern provided shelter for the lens.
On July 28, 1897, shortly after the station began operation, the Sandusky Register described the lighthouse as "very picturesquely situated... Its numerous apartments are ample and airy. They are handsomely finished with gold tinted wall papers and gilded moldings, lovely carpets and richly upholstered furniture. The mantels are beautifully inlaid, bronzed and carved, and every thing about the place, above and below, is just as nice as can be."
Modifications have been made to the structures over the years, first by the Coast Guard during the active service years and later by the university. However, the exterior of the house, with the exception of the enclosures of the porches, is essentially the same as when first constructed. Originally, oil was used to light the lamp, which was later converted to electricity. Equipment remaining at the station suggests that the lens was in a fixed position and an eclipse device was used to create a flash. The lens was removed from the lantern about the time the automated light was installed in 1962.
