Key West Lighthouse is a Key West lighthouse located in Key West , Florida . The first Key West Lighthouse was 20 meters high and was built in 1825. It had 15 lamps in 15-inch reflectors. The first lighthouse keeper, Michael Mobrity, died in 1832, and his widow, Barbara, became a lighthouse marshal, having served in this position for 32 years. The Great Havana Hurricane destroyed the lighthouse in 1846; The USS Morris, which crashed during a storm, said that "where the Key West Lighthouse stood, there is a white sandy beach." Barbara Mobriti survived, but fourteen people who took refuge in the lighthouse tower died, including seven members of her family. (The same hurricane destroyed the Sand Key lighthouse, 13 km away; six people died in it, including ranger Rebecca Flaherty, another widow of the previous keeper.) Barbara Mobriti continued to serve as the custodian of Key West Lighthouse until the early 1860s, when was dismissed at the age of 82 for speaking out against the Allies (Key West remained under the control of the Allies throughout the Civil War ).
| Key West Lighthouse | |
|---|---|
| English Key west lighthouse | |
 | |
| A country | |
| Sea | Strait of florida |
| City | Key west |
| Construction date | 1849 year |
| Beacon height | 22 m |
| NUM height | 26.6 m |
| Auto | not |
| Acting | not |
Since both the Key West lighthouses were destroyed by a hurricane in 1846 , the Honey ship was purchased and refitted, which served as the Sand Key lighthouse while a full-fledged new lighthouse was under construction. Due to attempts to reorganize the Council of Lighthouses, Congress was in no hurry to allocate appropriate funds for the construction of new lighthouses. The new Key West Lighthouse Tower was built in 1849. Its height reached 20 meters, and with 13 lamps in 21-inch reflectors, the new lighthouse stood on the ground at an altitude of 4.6 meters above sea level. In 1858, the lighthouse received a third-order fresnel lens . In 1873, the lantern was replaced (it was damaged by a hurricane in 1866), which added another 1 meter to the height of the tower. High buildings and trees in Key West began to block the light, and in 1894 the tower was raised by 6.1 meters, the placement of light was 30 meters above sea level.
After the coast guard wrote off Key West lighthouse in 1969, it was transferred to Monroe County , which in turn was transferred to the Key West Society of History and Arts. The Society runs the lighthouse and its associated buildings, such as Key West Lighthouse and the Rangers Housing Museum. The museum exhibits a first-order Fresnel lens at the Sombrero Key lighthouse.