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Excerpts - with permission

History of the Buffalo Main Lighthouse
By Bryan Penberthy

Pub. on US Lighthouses: Buffalo Main Lighthouse (online September 2017)


The first lighthouse

In 1817, Oliver Forward, collector of the port of Buffalo, was commissioned to secure a site for a lighthouse at Buffalo. A parcel of land at the mouth of Buffalo Creek [later renamed Buffalo River] was chosen, and to pay for the site, he used $351.50 of his own money. One year later, a 30-foot stone tower was erected and placed into service.

Buffalo's rise to prominence started in 1825, when the western terminus of the Erie Canal was completed, linking Buffalo to New York City. Soon after the opening of the Erie Canal, the government started fielding complaints that the lighthouse was useless. It was often obscured "by the smoke of the village."

The second lighthouse

To assuage the complaints, the government agreed to erect a new tower at the end of a long stone pier. In 1826, the treasury department appropriated $2,500 "to erect and build a pier, and lighthouse and ice-breaker." The contract stipulated that the work was to be completed by November 15, 1829.

November 1829 came and passed, while work progressed on the pier. The new Buffalo Lighthouse wasn't completed until 1833, a year after Buffalo was officially incorporated as a city.

The octagonal Buffalo Lighthouse was built of cut gray limestone resting on a stone foundation. The diameter of the tower measured 18'6" at the base and tapered up to 11'3" at the parapet. At the top, a ten-sided iron, brass, and copper lantern resided bringing the tower's height to 44 feet.

Inside the lantern was a Winslow Lewis patented Argand lamp and reflector system with a unique greenish lens meant to intensify the light. The harbor superintendent and the collector of the port tested the lens from out on the lake and determined that the reflectors alone produced a better light, and the lens was removed.

The Great Storm of 1844

Starting on October 15, 1844, a strong northeast wind had driven water up the lake, elevating the lake levels near the City of Buffalo. On the evening of October 18, the winds had shifted, blowing from the southwest, forcing the elevated lake waters into the city, submerging many areas in up to eight-feet of water.

It would become known as The Great Storm of 1844. The Great Storm of 1844 would cause significant breaches in the breakwater extending to the lighthouse. Many stones, some weighing as much as two-tons, were moved more than twenty feet from their original positions. The storm would also cause significant property damage and loss of life.

The following year, the government began rebuilding the breakwall by bringing in stones averaging four feet in length, and weighing between one and three tons. To ensure they would stay in place, they were set with hydraulic cement. The work would be suspended in 1846, but resumed again in 1853.

Starting around 1852, most lighthouses in the United States were upgraded to the more efficient Fresnel lens, and that year, the Buffalo Lighthouse was recommended as one of 20 principal lake lights that should get a third-order Fresnel lens. That same year, $2,500 was appropriated for a fog bell at the Buffalo Lighthouse, however, due to performance issues of similar signals along the coast of Maine, installation of the fog bell at Buffalo was delayed until 1856 to "perfect the fog-bell machinery."

In 1856, the Buffalo Lighthouse finally received its third-order Fresnel lens, however, the tower would have to be reworked prior to its installation. As the old lantern was too small to house a third-order lens, it was removed. An additional story of stone casement windows was added, topped off with a new two-story lantern which featured a service room. This work brought the tower's height to 68 feet.

Breakwater and North End Lighthouse

During the 1840s through the 1850s, more than a dozen grain elevators were built in the Buffalo Harbor. This helped fuel Buffalo's growth in the latter half of the nineteenth century, bringing a massive influx of shipping traffic in the harbor.

To handle the increase in the number of vessels, construction of a 4,000-foot breakwater was started in 1868. On July 15, 1870, an appropriation of $30,000 was made for the construction of two lighthouses. By 1872, the Buffalo Breakwater, North End Lighthouse was completed, exhibiting a fixed red light. At that time, the fog bell from the 1833 Buffalo Lighthouse was moved to the new breakwater light.




Page by Chuck LaChiusa in 2017
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