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Looking from the Past, oil painting by Clina Polloni. This is an inside window at the Bald Head Lighthouse, North Carolina. Being inside the lighthouse, looking through this window, we can almost feel how the old settlements looked at the future.
Old Baldy was completed in 1817, to replace an older lighthouse that was wearing out. Standing 110 feet high and containing 108 steps, it served as an active lighthouse until 1935 and as a radio beacon until 1958. It was used mostly to guide ships through the perilous Frying Pan Shoals. After the construction of the Oak Island Lighthouse in 1958, "Old Baldy" was decommissioned. It still stands as a symbol of Bald Head Island and is open to the public.
In 1995 Jacob Arthur, grandson of Charlie Frank House, Jr. (a contributor to the lighthouse's restoration and preservation) unveiled the plaque that stands in the foyer today. This plaque commemorated the re-opening of the Old Baldy Lighthouse after years of renovations. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 as Bald Head Island Lighthouse.
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