![]() The builder of the Greek revival-style Governor's Mansion in Milledgeville and the Medical College of Augusta, Cluskey would not live to see completion of the St. government, Cluskey and his team went to work in late 1869. Taking Poe's blueprint and a $45,000 contract from the U.S. With ships calling on our coast from throughout the nation and the world for the lumber and naval stores thus produced, we would need a new lighthouse. James Gould's son Horace Gould was among those who entered the burgeoning timber boom that rose from the local ashes of Southern defeat. Retreating Confederates put a powder keg to Gould's lighthouse shortly after, better to blow it up than to render it into the hands of the occupying Union forces. Clair Plantation on the island, where Gould presided until his death in 1852. Gould served as the original lighthouse keeper for the next 27 years. While her sappy prose sticks to the romance novel formula, even the most discerning local literature devotees admire her attention to accurate historical detail. 1736) to build the thing.Īnd Gould became so enamored with the project that he promptly applied to be the first lighthouse keeper upon its completion in 1810. To save money for such an endeavor on this frontier outpost of the fledgling nation, Gould recycled the tabby ruins of Fort Frederica (est. ![]() Simons Island trilogy begins with the novel "Lighthouse." This piece of fiction tells the true-life story of James Gould's efforts to build the island's first lighthouse. Heck, the lighthouse itself was built atop the ghost of its predecessor - a 75-foot-tall structure that held enough of the above human elements to fill a historical romance novel. Simons Lighthouse phantom is a real doozy, perhaps one of the most intriguing ghost stories along the entire Atlantic coast. No way you have all this human striving without stumbling across a good ghost story. Simons Lighthouse, there is love and prosperity, acrimony and war, life and death, hope and despair. Within the bricks and spiraling 129-step staircase of the St. Simons Lighthouse's more ephemeral qualities are conjured from the essence of all that we are now and what we once were. Sure, Poe designed it, and Georgia architect Charles Cluskey built it. ![]() Our lighthouse is a veritable melting pot of the Golden Isles' history, attributes and character. ![]() Likewise, it would be folly to describe the lighthouse thusly and leave it at that. Simons Island is a barrier island on the Georgia Coast that is 12 miles long and 3 miles wide with 14,000 residents. Simons Lighthouse's visual charms and functional relevance, yet still never get off the ground, so to speak. The glimpse of that guiding light, casting itself oceanward from a spire on the horizon, is as encouraging to captains of massive contemporary turbo-charged freighters as it was to steamship and sailing mariners during the 19th century timber boom hereabouts.īut we could fill this entire space with accolades for the St. Nowadays, that Fresnel lens sends an electronic, computerized flash to beckon incoming sea captains from as far as 23 miles out. The original French-cut, 7-foot-high crystal lens that first transmitted a welcoming light from an oil-and-wick lamp atop the lighthouse back then is still on the job today. While hosting thousands of visitors annually, the lighthouse continues to serve the same maritime function today that it first performed upon its completion in 1872.Īnd not only that. This quaintly majestic lighthouse that commands the skyline overlooking the sprawling oak-draped waterfront quad at Neptune Park is 150 years old this year. Simons Lighthouse stacks up with the best of them. 18-As far as beloved landmarks go, the 104-foot-high glimmering white tower of bricks and mortar that comprises the St. ![]()
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