The town of St. Joseph was founded in 1829 and it was determined that a lighthouse was necessary to further the town’s growth. In 1832 the first lighthouse was illuminated.
That lighthouse served the harbor until about 1905 and was ultimately torn down in the mid 1950s. The current lighthouses were built in 1904 and 1904 respectively. The front (Outter light) originally sported a fifth order fresnel and flashed red. The Inner Light had a fourth order fresnel that flashed white.
A catwalk still connects the two towers to the the shore, though they are no longer in use. Lighthouses with catwalks are rare on the Great Lakes, and only six of them remain on Lake Michigan. They were originally a way of getting from the shore the the lighthouses in times of bad weather.
The US Coast Guard deemed the lights excess in 2008 and they were transferred to the city in 2013. After undergoing an extensive restoration, the lights were returned to their prewar appearance, including the addition of a smoke stack at was originally removed from the tower in 1949.
Below are several more photographs from St. Joseph. If you have any questions or comments about this or any other photo on our site please feel free to contact us at anytime.
