File:St. Augustine Lighthouse, Anastasia Island, St. Augustine, FL.jpg

English: Constructed between 1871 and 1874, the St. Augustine Lighthouse was designed by Paul J. Pelz with a similar appearance to several other brick lighthouse towers designed by the same architect in the southeastern United States. The present St. Augustine Lighthouse replaced an earlier structure that had originally functioned as a watchtower, and was built of local Coquina stone in 1737. By 1824, the original lighthouse had come under control of the United States, and was the first light station established in the territory of Florida. At the end of the Civil War, it became apparent that the old lighthouse was being threatened by encroaching water due to erosion of the site, with the current lighthouse being built in response. Following completion of the current lighthouse, the old lighthouse structure finally collapsed into the ocean in 1880. Featuring a first order Fresnel Lens, the lighthouse was visible up to 19 miles out to sea. The lighthouse was electrified in 1936, and automated in 1955, before part of the property was sold as surplus property by the United States Federal Government to St. John’s County in 1970. In 1970, an act of arson did heavy damage to the keeper’s house, built in 1876, which was restored in the early 1980s by the Junior Service League of St. Augustine. In 1986, a teenager armed with a high-power rifle destroyed 19 prisms in the fresnel lens, doing heavy damage to the significant historical artifact, which was restored under the direction of the Junior Service League, with assistance from two retired coast guard personnel, Joe Cocking and Nick Johnston. In 1994, the restored lighthouse and surrounding buildings opened to the public as the Lighthouse Museum of St. Augustine, and ownership was transferred to the St. Augustine Lighthouse and Museum, Inc. in 2002. Despite the change in ownership, the lighthouse remains an active aid to navigation, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.