|
The Bird House, oil painting by Clina Polloni. The old house of the keeper at the Light House. Bald Head Island, North Carolina. I could only imaging this bird keeping the entrance to the house.
The first lighthouse keepers cottage was located the on the west side of “Old Baldy.” Due to erosion the keepers cottage was destroyed. It was replaced in the 1850′s with a one and one-half story cottage located on the east side of the lighthouse. The second structure was destroyed by fire. As a result the a larger 2-story in 1883 in the same location as the previous keepers cottage, reusing some of the original brick piers. This too was lost to a fire in 1931. A museum was built on the same spot, replicating the 2-story cottage.
The year 1817 saw the construction of the island's most revered landmark and symbol, Old Baldy Lighthouse. Still the island's only "highrise," Old Baldy lighthouse was the second of three lighthouses built on Bald Head Island, and is the only one remaining. In 1903, the lighthouse was decommissioned when the Cape Fear Light was erected on the eastern end of the island, but it still serves as a prominent day marker for mariners. Due to restoration efforts by the Old Baldy Foundation and the generosity of hundreds of contributors, visitors to North Carolina's oldest lighthouse can climb up her 108 steps for a spectacular panoramic view of Bald Head Island.
The foundation of the Cape Fear Light can still be seen at the end of Federal Road across from three lightkeeper's cottages known as Captain Charlie's Station, after Captain Charles Norton Swan, a lighthouse keeper who lived with his family on Bald Head Island from 1903 until 1933.
|
