RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina’s prime lighthouse-climbing season begins April 19 with the historic Bodie Island Lighthouse opening for regular tours for the first time. The newly restored lighthouse, its magnificent first-order Fresnel lens cleaned down to the shine, becomes the sixth along the state’s 320-mile coastline to allow visitors a top-of-the-tower view.
Also expected to open for tours this spring: the restored 1886 Roanoke River Lighthouse in Edenton. The 2-story structure, the only remaining screw-pile lighthouse built on North Carolina’s sounds and rivers, opens during the Colonial capital’s 300th anniversary celebration.
The Bodie (pronounced “body”) Island Lighthouse, built in 1872 and day-marked with broad black and white bands, sits on the Roanoke Sound south of Nags Head. Before being deemed ready for visitors, it underwent a major overhaul from the marble and slate on the bottom floor to the metal features around the gallery and lantern decks. The Fresnel lens’s 344 glass prisms were removed for cleaning and the optical panels from its 12-foot framework polished.
“The view from the top of a lighthouse always takes my breath away – and not just because it’s such a steep climb,” said Wit Tuttell, director of marketing for the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Division of Tourism. “From the Bodie Island Lighthouse, we’ll take in a panorama of the ocean and the sound that few people other than the lighthouse keepers have seen.”
Lighthouse aficionados may find the gleaming lens even more remarkable, Tuttell added. The first-order Fresnel was the largest of these revolutionary 19th-century lenses, which use a complex system of hand-cut prisms to cast light 20 miles out to sea. Only about 15 U.S. lighthouses – including Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Corolla – are equipped with first-order Fresnels. Others, such as the storied lens from the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, are prized by maritime museums.
The Bodie Island Lighthouse is one of only a dozen surviving “tall brick tower type” lighthouses in the United States. (Three more in North Carolina – Currituck Beach Lighthouse, Cape Lookout Lighthouse and Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the nation’s tallest – also fall into the category, which specifies a minimum height of 150 feet.)
The restoration of the Bodie Island Lighthouse adds another chapter to a dramatic history. Shoddy construction set the original 1847 lighthouse canting to the east. The tower was replaced in 1859, just in time for the Civil War. Confederate troops, retreating from the war’s first amphibious operation, blew up the lighthouse so that the victorious Union forces couldn’t use it.
After the war, a new lighthouse was constructed on a 15-acre tract between tall pines and freshwater marsh. Less than three weeks after its opening on Oct. 1, 1872, a flock of geese crashed into the lantern and damaged the lens. The lighthouse’s lot improved under the management of the National Park Service, which eventually turned the keepers’ cottage into a visitor center and gave people a glimpse inside the tower.
Until now, public access to the gallery has been limited to one weekend in 1988 during the U.S. Lighthouse Service’s bicentennial. Before climbers could be permitted to spiral their way to the top on a regular basis, restoration was needed. Work began in 2010 but was halted when crews found structural deficiencies that weren’t covered by the budget. Funds became available the next fiscal year, and the project was finally completed.
In Edenton, the Roanoke River Lighthouse also has a rich history. Originally located across the Albemarle Sound at the mouth of the Roanoke River near Plymouth, it was one of 15 screw-pile lighthouses in North Carolina. Decommissioned in 1941, the lighthouse was eventually brought to Edenton and used as a private residence.
The Edenton Historical Commission acquired the lighthouse in 2007. Restored, refurbished and relocated to Edenton Bay, the lighthouse again sits atop pilings over the water and is expected to open for tours this spring. ehcnc.org