Middle Bay Lighthouse (Mobile Bay Lighthouse), offshore from Mobile, Alabama
Screwpile style lighthouse built in 1885.
MOBILE BAY / "MIDDLE BAY" LIGHT
Location: MOBILE HARBOR/MOBILE BAY
Station Established: 1885
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1885
Operational: No
Automated: Yes, in 1935
Deactivated: 1967
Foundation Materials: Screw piling with platform
Construction Materials: Wood
Tower Shape: Hexagonal without lantern
Markings/Pattern: White dwelling with red piles
Height: 41'
Relationship to Other Structure: Integral
Original Lens: Fourth Order, 1885
Characteristic: Fixed white varied by a red flash every 30 seconds
Fog Signal: Bell struck by machinery every 5 seconds
Historical Information:
- 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.