St Augustine and Ponce Inlet, Florida
July 2-11, 1999 I was in Florida on vacation visiting friends. I had also arranged to do a presentation on Long Island lighthouses at the Ponce Inlet museum on July 10. Staying in the Deltona area, I was not far from from the St. Augustine and Ponce Inlet lighthouses. Both of these lights are late-1800s coastal lights and have been nicely restored.
I visited both lights on July 7. It was originally a trip to just see the St. Augustine light, but it was such a nice sunny day that we decided to drive down A1A to Ponce Inlet and see that light, too. As long as there was good light for getting some photos, I figured I'd make use of it. Especially since I often have bad luck with lighting on photo trips.
On the day before my presentation, I visited the Ponce Inlet light again. Historian Tom Taylor had previously agreed to give me a "royal tour" of the museum, so I took him up on the offer. Tom, who wrote a book on the history of the Ponce Inlet light in 1993, spent about four hours showing me around and describing the history of the area and light station. The museums at Ponce Inlet are set up in the various buildings and each is dedicated to a different subject. We went through each building with Tom interpreting the exhibits and even offering information which was not included in the exhibits. He is a friendly, knowledgeable man and I was fortunate to have such a guide. He even allowed me to enter the room where they restore Fresnel lenses and to go inside the First Order lens in their lens exhibit building. That was quite an experience. Another experience was when I got to the top of the tower and ran out of film. Running down the second tallest tower on the East Coast in July isn't so bad, but running back up...
In all, I learned a great deal about the area. And I found some connections to Long Island's maritime history. The designer of the Ponce Inlet light was Francis Hopkinson Smith, the man who built the Race Rock light. In fact, Ponce Inlet was probably his next project. The lighthouse service ship Pharos, which operated in the area, was built in Port Jefferson. And the shifting sands of the inlet itself remind one of the shifting sands of Long Island which have shaped much of Long Island's lighthouse history.
Saturday, July10, I gave my presentation to a group of about 60 or so folks. I had assembled a slide show of 16 Long Island lights and had brought along some little-known Long Island lighthouse documents to read to the audience. As the case with lighthouse fans always seems to be, the group was great. We viewed 62 slides and discussed the history of those lights and others on Long Island. We ended the program, which lasted about an hour, by raffling off artwork and photographs of Long Island lighthouses. Included in the audience were a retired Coast Guardsman who served at several area lights in the '50s, some relatives of former keepers and, quite coincidentally, relatives of the family who built the house in which I grew up and my mother still lives. In fact, my mother went to school with the gentleman. Small world, indeed. It was both an honor and a pleasure to give the presentation to a great audience at a great lighthouse facility.
Below are links to two pages of images. I encourage you to learn more about these magnificent lights and to support the organizations responsible for their fine condition and informative museums. Links to Florida lighthouse organizations are located at the bottom of the pages. Enjoy.
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Text and code Copyright 1999 Robert G. Muller. As with all of the material on this site, please don't violate copyright laws by printing, downloading or copying materials without my consent. If you'd like to make use of any of the images, text or code on this site for non-commercial purposes, just send me e-mail and let me know. Thanks. :-)