Point Bolivar Lighthouse
TX 87, Port Bolivar, TXThe Point Bolivar Lighthouse is significant because it is one of the few nineteenth-century lighthouses remaining on the Texas Gulf Coast. The structure, a brick tower covered with cast iron plates, represents an unusual type of construction. The 1872 Point Bolivar Lighthouse was first lighted on November 19, 1873, and operated until it was discontinued on May 29, 1933. The light shined every night during its 60 years of service except for two, during the 1915 hurricane when a storm destroyed the oil house.
During the devastating Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the Point Bolivar Lighthouse withstood the savage winds and safely harbored about 125 refugees. Few other structures survived the 1900 onslaught.
In 1915, when winds reached an estimated 125 miles per hour and the lighthouse top swayed 12 inches from side to side, fifty people took refuge in the structure for two nights, sitting in pairs on alternating steps of the iron stairway. The tower vibrated so that the lens would not rotate, but the keeper turned it by hand until the oil supply washed away. In the midst of the storm, the sea forced open the lighthouse door, filling the base of the tower with approximately four feet of water. The crashing of waves against the structure added to the alarm of the refugees. The Point Bolivar Lighthouse continued to operate until 1933 when it was abandoned. The Federal government later sold the structure and surrounding property to a private individual.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.