Kenosha Light (also called Southport Light) is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

and keeper's house on Simmons Island north of the channel into Kenosha's harbor in

Kenosha County Kenosha County is located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 169,151 as of the 2020 census, making it the eighth most populous county in Wisconsin. The county shares the same name as the city of Kenosh ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, USA.

History

Also known as the "Old Kenosha Light", it was replaced by the

Kenosha North Pier Light The Kenosha North Pier lighthouse or Kenosha Light is a lighthouse located near Kenosha in Kenosha County, Wisconsin. "A typical 'Lake Michigan red tower'",

in 1906. The keeper's house continued to be used for many years, however. The light is listed in the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

as the Kenosha Light Station, Reference #90000995. It has been an active aid to navigation since 1996, but is not listed in Volume VII

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

light list. The lantern room was removed in 1913 but replicated in 1994. The

Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...

was replaced by a 300 mm Tidaland Signal plastic lens – a medium range lens commonly used on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

. A historical marker in front of the lighthouse reads: :''Built by the federal government in 1866, the Kenosha Lighthouse replaces two other lighthouses constructed at this site in 1848? and 1858?. Originally designated a coast and harbor light for Southport, now Kenosha, Wisconsin provided the first navigational illumination a mariner would see upon entering Wisconsin from the Chicago area. Standing tall and situated on a hill, the lighthouse projected light from above lake level. The tower is built of yellow Milwaukee Cream City brick and is conical in shape. Originally the lighthouse contained a fourth order Fresnel lens fueled by kerosene with a fixed?-white light which varied by flashes. Officially discontinued in 1906, the lantern room was later removed and replaced by a tripod mast for displaying storm warning flags and lights. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, the lighthouse has been restored and holds an automated electric light. (1996)'' A lightkeeper's house sits near the lighthouse tower. The original section of the house was built in 1866 at the same time as the lighthouse. It was two stories, with walls of cream brick similar to the tower, with a simple rectangular footprint. The moderate pitch of the roof and the

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

board under the eaves come from

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style. In 1907 the north

ell An ell (from Proto-Germanic *''alinō'', cognate with Latin ''ulna'') is a northwestern European unit of measurement, originally understood as a cubit (the combined length of the forearm and extended hand). The word literally means "arm", and ...

with the two-story porch was added to the house, along with a 2-story addition to the kitchen at the southeast corner and bathrooms. With The light on Simmons Island was part of an effort to make Kenosha a major shipping port, and money was spent from the 1830s to the 1880s on infrastructure like the lighthouse. But this lighthouse was too far from the harbor to give entering craft a clear bearing, so a beacon was added to the pierhead in the 1860s. By the turn of the century, the better harbors and railroad connections at Chicago, Milwaukee and Racine prevailed and Kenosha was a minor port.

Current status and directions

The building is currently maintained by the City of Kenosha and the Kenosha County Historical Society. It is also on the State List/Inventory, having been listed in 1975. The keeper's house is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays during the tourist season. The tower is open for climbers many weekends of the summer. The lighthouse can be seen from Kenosha near the vicinity of 50th Street and 4th Avenue.Wobser, David, Milwaukee Kenosha Southport Light

Boatnerd The boatnerd corporation, a registered not for profit corporation, circulates information about vessels that ply the North American Great Lakes. When Acheson Ventures provided space for a headquarters for the organization in their Maritime Center o ...

References

External links

Anderson, Kraig, Lighthouse friends, Kenosha Southport Light article.Kenosha History Center.
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National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

br> Maritime History Project, Inventory of Historic Light Stations - Wisconsin - Kenosha Southport Light.Satellite view, Southport Lighthouse

Google earth Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satellite images, aerial photography, and geog ...

.
Terry Pepper, Seeing the Light, Southport Lighthouse: Simmons Island, Kenosha, Wisconsin.
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{{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1866 Houses completed in 1866 Buildings and structures in Kenosha, Wisconsin Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin 1866 establishments in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Kenosha County, Wisconsin

History

Current status and directions

See also

References

Further reading

External links