Bald Head Light - History

History

A ten-acre site on the west side of Bald Head Island, along the banks of the Cape Fear River, was selected for North Carolina’s first lighthouse. The property was purchased from Benjamin Smith, who would later become the governor of North Carolina. In 1792, Congress appropriated $4,000 to complete the lighthouse that had been started by the North Carolina Colony before becoming part of the United States. Work on the lighthouse was overseen by Abisha Woodward, who would later build two lighthouses in Connecticut: New London and Falkner's Island. The lighthouse, which was first activated on December 23rd 1794, directed traffic to the Cape Fear River and the growing port of Wilmington, located several miles upstream. In less than two decades this lighthouse was threatened due to severe erosion of the river bank. Between 1813 and 1817 funds were approved for rebuilding Bald Head Lighthouse.

The replacement lighthouse now known as "Old Baldy" was completed by 1817. Old Baldy was built further inland where it would not be threatened by shifting sands along the river for just under $16,000. A stone plaque above the entrance identifies the builder as Daniel S. Way, and the foundry for the lantern room as R. Cochran. The octagonal brick and plaster tower stands 90 feet high and was originally equipped with an array of 15 lamps and reflectors. The lantern room is offset from the center of the tower, and as technology improved, it later housed a Fresnel lens. At its base, the tower is 36 feet wide and at its top 14 ½ feet wide, while the walls are 5 feet thick at the base and taper to 2 ½ feet at the top. The rectangular stairway leading up the inside of the tower is made of Carolina yellow pine.

Old Baldy was first lit in 1817 by its longtime keeper Sedgewick Springs, a veteran of the American Revolution and owner of the nearby Sedgely Abby Plantation. The Bald Head Lighthouse soon proved to be inadequate especially during storms and fog.

Some problems with the Bald Head Lighthouse included its location and illumination. Positioned some four miles from the eastern end of the island and equipped with a minor light, the lighthouse was unsuccessful in guiding ships safely past Frying Pan Shoals. A lightship was therefore placed out on the shoals in 1854.

A Jones fog bell was placed near Bald Head Lighthouse in 1855. In the same year the Lighthouse Board recommended improving the light by replacing the original apparatus with a third-order Fresnel lens. It also recommended a fixed light, varied by flashes "to distinguish this light, under all circumstances, from Federal Point Light."

Requests for funds to raise the height of Old Baldy and install a more powerful first-order lens to make it a coastal beacon were never approved. Instead, in 1898 the Lighthouse Board approved the construction a new 159-foot steel skeleton tower equipped with a first order lens named the Cape Fear Lighthouse, to be located on the southeastern end of Bald Head Island, where it could mark the shoals. The Cape Fear Light served as a coastal beacon from 1903 to 1958.

After the construction of the Cape Fear Lighthouse Old Baldy continued to serve as an active lighthouse with a fourth-order fixed beacon until 1930 and housed a radio beacon until 1958. It was used mostly to help guide ships through the perilous Frying Pan Shoals. After the construction of the Oak Island Lighthouse in 1958, Old Baldy and the Cape Fear Lighthouse were both decommissioned. The Cape Fear lighthouse was demolished but Old Baldy still stands as a day beacon and symbol of Bald Head Island. The lighthouse has been restored and is open to the public.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 as Bald Head Island Lighthouse.

In 1995 Jacob Arthur, grandson of Charlie Frank House, Jr. (a contributor to the lighthouse's restoration and preservation) unveiled the plaque that stands in the foyer today. This plaque commemorated the re-opening of the Old Baldy Lighthouse after years of renovations.