Sapelo Island Lighthouse

Rising 65 feet above a marshy island at the southern tip of Sapelo Island, this brick lighthouse was built around 1820 to a design by Winslow Lewis. Its tapered cylindrical tower, stuccoed exterior, arched openings and cast-iron lantern make it Georgia's oldest surviving coastal lighthouse. Nearby are a c.1877 iron range beacon with fluted columns and filigree ornament, a brick cistern, the ruins of an 1890 oil house, footings of a 1905 steel tower, and a foundation from a Spanish-American War fortification. The complex marked the coastal entrance to the port of Darien, which shipped rice, cotton, timber and naval stores. The tower was deactivated after the 1898 hurricane, but it continued as a daymark until the whole station closed in 1933. It was listed for its role in maritime transportation, its architecture, and the archaeological potential of the surrounding island, a state-owned tract with a later causeway.