Cape Hatteras Light Station

Cape Hatteras Light Station is a historic lighthouse complex on the Outer Banks at Buxton, North Carolina, now part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It consists of the lighthouse, a brick oil house, a double keepers' quarters used as a museum, and a principal keepers' quarters planned as a historic house museum. It was listed in 1978 under criteria A and C. The surviving papers focus on a threat from shoreline erosion, which had already destroyed the remains of the earlier 1803 lighthouse. The National Park Service proposed moving all four structures inland to keep the group intact, and approval was given in 1990. In 1998 the plan was reaffirmed with a move of 2,900 feet instead of 2,500, because the shoreline had kept retreating. The buildings were to keep their relative arrangement and a setting about 1,600 feet from the shore. Archeological testing along the route and at the new site found no cultural remains, and survey drawings and photographs were recorded beforehand.