Middle Bay Lighthouse Lost In Time
By Sue Clark on Jun 18, 2009 in News 
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Plans To Move Light Stalled
As the Middle Bay lighthouse in Mobile Alabama grows more derelict each day, plans to move it inland are still on hold. A meeting of the Alabama Historical Commission is scheduled for next week to decide on it fate. The local preservation group concerned about it, the Alabama Lighthouse Association, called for it to be moved last year. But time marches slowly in government, and the committee will just now be deciding if it should stay or if it should go to a new home at Battleship Memorial Park. The cost of moving the lighthouse 15 miles by crane and barge is estimated to be $1.7 million dollars, including restoration.
Officials at the park welcome the idea and have an area in the southeast corner of the park cleared out and waiting. According to a story in the Press Register, the Park’s executive Director, Bill Tunnell, said, “The sad thing about it is, it’s just continuing to deteriorate out in the bay. It’s just going to be incredibly expensive to continue that repair when it can be done so much cheaper and easier on land, as well as providing hundreds of thousands of people the opportunity to see it.”
May Not Survive Another Hurricane
With this year’s hurricane season underway, some are worried the lighthouse may not survive another storm. “One of Alabama’s most treasured national landmarks is in serious jeopardy,” wrote Hal Pierce, a retired Navy captain and one of the founders of the lighthouse association, in a statement. “The stark possibility is that the lighthouse may not survive the next hurricane.”
The Committee will be meeting 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at The Brookley Center, Magnolia Room, 254 Old Bay Front Drive in Mobile. The Commission has also arranged for a boat trip to the lighthouse to inspect it. The lighthosue is a wooden screwpile, and was deactivated in 1967. From the US Coast Guard Historical Site:
- The station was activated in 1885.
- 1916 was a busy year. The keeper’s wife gave birth to a baby that summer at the station. According to the Alabama Lighthouse Association web site the keeper brought a milk cow to the station and corralled it on a section of the lower deck because his wife was unable to nurse the newborn baby. All had to be evacuated when the station survived but was damaged by a hurricane that year.
- The light was automated in 1935.
- Lighthouse was deactivated in 1967.
- In 1984 the lighthouse was stabilized by Middle Bay Light Centennial Commission in preparation for the centennial celebration.
- Mobile Middle Bay Lighthouse was placed on National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Reference #74000429
- In 1996 the Coast Guard loaned the Fresnel lens from the lighthouse to the Ft. Morgan Museum for public display.
- In 2002 restoration efforts were begun to repair the light.
Confused Commissioners?
And on a side note: Also mentioned in the story was this:
Mark Driscoll, the Alabama Historical Commission’s historic sites division director, said that aside from the cost of moving the lighthouse, the commission is also concerned about Middle Bay’s status on the National Register of Historic Places, a federal database of sites deemed worthy of preservation. Sites listed in the register are often eligible for more funding.
This is the second story I’ve seen today where it seems the Powers That Be do not know whether a lighthouse is listed in the National Registry. It’s either that or very poor and confusing reporting. In either case, I’ve included the Federal Refernce Number above so the Commission, if they happen to see this article, can look up for themselves that the lighthouse is indeed on the Registry.
Photo Credit: Middle Bay Lighthouse Today by lburly.
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June 21st, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Thank you for the coverage. As the Lighthouse Association’s Project Manager for this stage of the planning and programming effort for preserving Middle Bay Lighthouse, please let me clarify - the Alabama Historical Commission is fully aware that the lighthouse is on the Registry. We are all agreed upon the primary concern being preservation of the Middle Bay Lighthouse. What the AHC Staff has raised as a funding concern is whether or not relocating the lighthouse ashore as proposed will remove it from the National Registry and thereby reduce an already critical situation with raising funds to repair and preserve the structure. We (the Alabama Lighthouse Association) believe that the federal procedures for relocating a listed historic structure will accommodate our proposal and the lighthouse will retain its place on the Registry. This is only one of several issues the Historical Commission must address in their decision process.