Pennsylvania's Presque Isle Pierhead Lighthouse unique among U.S. lights

Many travelers may be familiar with the iconic Presque Isle Lighthouse pictured on special Pennsylvania license plates, but Presque Isle's unique pierhead light is also worth visiting.

We drove a few miles farther along the peninsula after visiting the Presque Isle Lighthouse to the road turning off towards a Coast Guard base at the southeastern tip of Presque Isle, where a pierhead light marks the narrow entrance into the protected harbor between the city of Erie on the mainland and the long bar of Presque Isle jutting out into Lake Erie.

The pier was a popular place for fishers the day we visited, and we saw at least one angler pull in a sizeable fish as we strolled along the concrete pier out to the light.

The city of Erie already had a land lighthouse, built in 1818, but difficulty navigating into the inlet brought a beacon at the harbor entrance in 1830, housed in a small wooden light tower.

Mariners sometimes had difficulty spotting the pier light until they were right by it, and the pier light got a new sixth-order Fresnel lens in the mid-1850s. The lighthouse and improved lighting didn't help much when a schooner attempting to enter the harbor in 1857 during a storm collided with the lighthouse, destroying the tower and the lens.

A temporary light hung on a gallows frame at the pier until a new pier light tower went up in 1858.

Perhaps officials had the fate of the original pier light tower in mind when they ordered a cast-iron tower sheathed in steel for an estimated cost of $5,250.

The 34-tall Presque Isle Pierhead Light (or Erie Harbor North Pierhead Light) tower is unique among lighthouses in the United States, being the only surviving example of the square and pyramidal style light tower in the country.

Changes at the harbor over the years meant changes for the little pierhead light as traffic increased in the harbor, necessitating changes in its pier perch.

A major change came in 1882 for the lighthouse with a move 190 feet further along the pier. Another move of 509 feet along further the pier and automation of the light happened in 1940.

The home that housed a number of the light's 15 keepers through 1940 still sits on the grounds of the nearby Coast Guard Station.

In 1995, the Coast Guard changed the tower's fixed red light to a red flashing light. The lighthouse's fourth-order Fresnel lens also went to the Erie Maritime Museum at that time. The pierhead tower with its solar powered light is still an active navigational aid for area sailors.

Erie has a rich maritime history (much of it beyond the scope of my lighthouse articles). Readers interested in learning more might want to start by checking out the Erie Maritime Museum Web site, especially the page recounting the story of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and his victory over the British in 1813 during the Battle of Lake Erie and the War of 1812.

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