Lighthouse Oversight
Property markers at South Bass Island Station bear the initials LHE, for Lighthouse Establishment, the original name for the government body overseeing lighthouses in the United States. The First Congress of the United States created the United State Lighthouse Establishment in 1789. Its charge was the 12 colonial lighthouses then in place. In 1852, the Establishment became the U.S. Lighthouse Board, a body primarily made up of engineering officers of the Army and Navy and overseeing 12 lighthouse districts across the nation. In 1903 the Lighthouse Board became part of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and in 1910 it became the Bureau of Lighthouses. In 1939, the Bureau became part of the Coast Guard, which still has responsibility for the automated tower at South Bass Island Station.
The Ohio State University acquired the property and light station in 1967 to be used for educational purposes.
