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Website designed, written and constructed by Dan Aument
A National Register Historic Site since 1995 - A State of Michigan Historic Site since 2002
Lighthouse History - Fourth stage of Lighthouse Development 1936
Original wooden tower 1872 - 1901/1902
Free standing steel tower 1901/1902 - 1907
Steel tower with fog signal building 1907 - 1936
Beacon tower added to fog signal 1936
In this late 1940‘s view, the color scheme of the lighthouse appears to be white on the bottom and red for the light tower.
The mid to late 1930‘s was a period of significant change for the lighthouse. In 1934, the light was electrified and two years later, the Lighthouse Bureau made plans to replaced the 30 year old steam driven fog signal with a signal using an electric powered air compressor and dual tone air horn. (The removal of the two huge boilers was a major operation undoubtedly necessitating removal of most of the west wall of the building.)
The free standing steel tower was loaded on a barge and towed by the Lighthouse Tender Sumac to it’s new location on a pier near Calumet, Illinois. The Sumac was based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the 12th Lighthouse District Headquarters. One of the ship’s duties was to deliver coal to the Holland Lighthouse. The rectangular metal coal chute cover is still plainly visible on the north side of the lighthouse roof.
A two story, 11 foot square wooden tower was added between the twin gables at the west end of the fog signal building. The lower level of the new tower was the lamp room, where the lens was cleaned and repaired. The upper level was a ten sided lantern room.
The crawl space was transformed into a basement with the addition of the port holes on the north, west and south sides and the addition of proper steel doors on the east side of the building.
When the two steam boilers were removed, the building was without heat, so a coal fired furnace was installed in the basement.
The catwalk was removed from the second floor, and since the boiler steam domes no longer extended into the second floor area, beams and a complete wooden floor were installed. The compressed air tanks for the new fog horn were installed on the second floor, with the compressor on the first floor.
Although most of this equipment had been removed by the turn of the 21st
The Tower Floor lamp room is roughly centered above the gables on the west end of the building.
The Lantern Floor, the top most level of the lighthouse, consists of the 10 sided lamp enclosure. Below the glass on the southeast side is an access hatch to the small deck about 45 feet above the surface of Lake Michigan.
