Cape Henlopen Light was a lighthouse near Lewes , in present-day Cape Henlopen State Park , Delaware , United States . The lighthouse was on the north side of the Great Dune on Cape Henlopen , Delaware . It was the sixth lighthouse built in the colonies.
8-411: The Cape Henlopen Beacon was a lighthouse built to mark the point of the cape, supplementing Cape Henlopen Light just to the south. It was decommissioned in 1884 and demolished. Cape Henlopen in historic times has been gradually extending to the northwest, so that the original lighthouse, Cape Henlopen Light , eventually was at a sufficient distance from the end of land to be ineffectual for marking
16-658: A storm undermined the tower, causing it to fall seaward. Another light also once stood on Cape Henlopen. In 1824, the Cape Henlopen Beacon was constructed on a 45-foot (14 m) tower about a mile north of the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse. Before the Beacon was assigned a keeper, the keeper of the Henlopen Light was in charge of maintaining the Beacon. A replica of Cape Henlopen Light was built in 1924, and in 2004
24-529: The drifting away of the sand. Before the structure's collapse in 1926, though, the tower had been discontinued as a lighthouse. Earlier in 1924, the lens was removed from the light for refurbishing and to be placed on display. With the building of the Brandywine Light, waiting areas were no longer needed behind the breakwaters, so the light was disabled. All measures to protect the tower failed and in April 1926,
32-460: The lighthouse was almost completely destroyed by the British . The wardens repaired the damage and it was relit by 1784. In 1897, the sand dune surrounding the tower was reported to be steadily blowing away at a rate of 3 to 5 feet (0.91 to 1.52 m) per year. In 1905, several tons of brush were placed about the tower and oil house to prevent the foundations and brick walls from being undermined by
40-399: The night. At the same time the keeper's house was constructed, the reflectors were replaced with a fourth order Fresnel lens . In 1864 the decrepit tower and house were replaced with a screw-pile structure, though unusually for the type it still sat entirely on land, at least at first. In 1875 a fog signal was added in a separate building. The cape continued to move, and by the end of 1884
48-575: The ocean was lapping at the piles of the light, seriously threatening its existence. The lighthouse board decided against saving or moving the light, and in October of that year the light was discontinued and taken down, though the fog signal was maintained for another year until the signal at the Delaware Breakwater East End Light (which had been lit the previous year) was operational. Cape Henlopen Light Cape Henlopen Lighthouse
56-491: The point. Therefore, in 1825, the Cape Henlopen Beacon was built as an auxiliary about a mile north of the older light. The Henlopen Beacon was a typical conical tower with an array of reflectors and oil lamps for the beacon. This light did not receive its own keeper's house until 1854, being maintained instead by the keeper of its neighbor to the south. This required the keeper to make multiple one mile journeys throughout
64-524: Was constructed on the north side of the Great Dune to obtain additional height. Mariners from Philadelphia lobbied for the construction of a lighthouse, and many ships had fallen victim to the dark waters around the cape, necessitating construction of such a lighhouse. The land was donated by Thomas and William Penn. It was completed in 1767 and first lit in 1769. In 1777, during the American Revolution,
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