Port Pontchartrain Lighthouse

Oct. 7, 2019

Port Pontchartrain Lighthouse, Port Pontchartrain, formerly named Milneburg, New Orleans, Louisiana

Originally built 1839.

PORT PONTCHARTRAIN LIGHT

Location: LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN
Station Established: 1832
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1855
Operational? NO
Automated? NO
Deactivated: 1929
Foundation Materials: CONCRETE PAD ON PILINGS
Construction Materials: BRICK
Tower Shape: HOURGLASS W/OCTAGONAL LANTERN
Markings/Pattern: WHITE W/RED LANTERN
Relationship to Other Structure: SEPARATE
Original Lens: FIFTH ORDER FRESNEL 1857

Historical Information:

1832 – Local railroad company erected a private lighthouse. The structure was a square lantern hoisted between two channels at a height of 50’.
1834 – Congress appropriated $5,000 for a new 20’ high light. The railroad preferred the 50’ and suggested that the government buy their light rather than building another. Nothing happened for several years.
1837 – Congress approved $25,000 for a lighthouse and other aids to navigation at Port Pontchartrain.
1839 – Octagonal wooden tower completed at a cost of $4400.
1854 – Congress once again approved monies for a new lighthouse. This time, $6,000 was allocated.
1855 – Current lighthouse constructed atop a concrete pad on pilings.
1857 – 5th order Fresnel lens installed.
1864 – Old wooden tower torn down.
1880 – Lighthouse raised 7’ and new lantern installed. As a result, the focal plane was raised to 42’ above the lake.
1920’s – 5th order lens replaced by 300 mm lens lantern.
1929 – Lighthouse discontinued and turned over to the New Orleans Levee Board.
1939 – 1983 – Area around lighthouse used as local amusement park.
Currently – Lighthouse owned by University of New Orleans.

Keepers:

Benjamin J. Shane (1839-unknown)
Charles Fagot (c. 1860s)
David Power (unknown - 1882)
Ellen Wilson (1882-1896)
Margaret R. Norvell (1896-1924)
Minnie E. Coteron (1924-1929)

Researched and written by Marie Vincent, a volunteer through the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.