Sombrero Key Light is located offshore of

Vaca Key Key Vaca is an island in the middle Florida Keys, located entirely within the borders of the city of Marathon, Florida. Geography Key Vaca is located in between Fat Deer Key and Knight's Key. Vaca Key was also connected via bridge to Boot ...

Marathon, Florida Marathon is a city spread over Knight's Key, Boot Key, Key Vaca, Fat Deer Key, Long Point Key, Crawl Key and Grassy Key islands in the middle of the Florida Keys, in Monroe County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a to ...

. The lighthouse is located on a mostly submerged

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

. The name ''Sombrero Key'' goes back to the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

, and old charts show a small island at the spot, but by the later 19th Century the island had eroded away, with some parts of the reef exposed at low tide. As a result, the reef and the lighthouse have also been called Dry Banks. The lighthouse was put in service in 1858, automated in 1960, and was deactivated in 2015. The foundation is iron pilings with disks, and the tower is a skeletal octagonal pyramid of cast iron. It is a tall red painted tower. It has two platforms. The lower one, above the water, held water and fuel tanks, the generator (after the light was electrified), boat hoists and a workshop. The upper platform, above the water, held the quarters for the staff. The original lens, a first-order

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 ...

, is now on display in the

Key West Lighthouse The Key West Lighthouse is located in Key West, Florida. The first Key West lighthouse was a tower completed in 1825. It had 15 lamps in reflectors. History The first keeper, Michael Mabrity, died in 1832, and his widow, Barbara, became ...

Museum. The Sombrero Key Light is the tallest lighthouse in the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and e ...

, and was the last lighthouse constructed under the supervision of Lieutenant

George Meade George Gordon Meade (December 31, 1815 – November 6, 1872) was a United States Army officer and civil engineer best known for decisively defeating Confederate States Army, Confederate Full General (CSA), General Robert E. Lee at the Battle ...

of the Bureau of Topographical Engineers.

Keepers

* Joseph Bethel 1858 – 1859 * Joseph F. Papy 1859 – 1860 * Anthony Davis 1860 – 1862 * James Bryson 1862 – 1864 * John H. Singleton 1864 – 1866 * John Carroll 1866 – 1870 * Peter Crocker 1870 – 1872 * Adolphus A. Seymour 1872 – 1873 * Jeremiah Buckley 1873 – 1881 * Thomas J. Pinder 1881 – 1884 * Melville Evans Spencer 1884 – 1889 * Rudolph Rieke 1889 – 1904 * John Watkins 1904 – 1913 * Miguel Fabal 1913 – 1919 * William H. Pierce 1919 – at least 1933 * Edward P. Johnson 1936 – 1941 * Furman C. Williamson 1958 –1960

Availability

On February 1, 2019 it was announced that the lighthouse would be given away freely to any government agencies, educational agencies, non-profit corporations, or any community development organizations who wanted to use it for "educational, park, recreational, cultural or historic preservation purposes." This is in accordance with the

National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 (NHLPA; Public Law 106-355; 16 U.S.C. 470w-7) is American legislation creating a process for the transfer of federally owned lighthouses into private hands. It was created as an extension o ...

. If none request it, then it will be auctioned off to anyone else who does. On February 13, 2022 the lighthouse was listed for auction on GSAAuctions.gov with an opening bid of $15,000. On May 16, 2022 the lighthouse was sold for $575,000.

Notes

External links

* {{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1858 Lighthouses in Monroe County, Florida National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Florida Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida 1858 establishments in Florida

Keepers

Availability

Notes

Further reading

External links