A Vanished Lighthouse on the Delaware River

Old Fort Mifflin on the Delaware River, Pennsylvania (Wikimedia Commons image)

Fort Mifflin Blockhouse Light

I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint, but as I am not…it should be to build a light-house.

Benjamin Franklin

Letter to his wife July 17, 1757 after almost being shipwrecked

Blueprint for the Fort Mifflin Blockhouse Light (Coast Guard Historian's Office)

The pacifist founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, refused to build any fortifications to protect the colony when it was established in 1681. But nearly a century later, after the American Colonies grew up and desired to sever the frail umbilicus with their motherland, the burgeoning port of Philadelphia felt it needed a defensive outpost, due partly to its vulnerability in the Delaware River Estuary but mostly because of rising tensions with England.

Benjamin Franklin and John Penn, grandson of William Penn and governor of Philadelphia, ordered a fort built in 1771-1776 on Mud Island near the western shore of the Delaware River where it encounters the mouth of the Schuylkill River. Fort Mercer was built opposite Mud Island on the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River. Philadelphia was, at this time, the largest British port in America and a wealthy one too. But claims to the rich city would soon change.

After the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Revolutionary War began, large spiked boxes called chevaux de frise were lowered to the riverbed between the two forts to prevent British ships from approaching Philadelphia. Guns at both Mud Island and Fort Mercer were trained on the river. Despite this effort, Philadelphia fell to the British after the Battle of Brandywine, and enemy forces assailed the fort on Mud Island from the north. It was heavily bombarded for six weeks. The 400 soldiers garrisoned there fought valiantly but were overwhelmed and captured by the British in November 1777.

After the war, in the late 1790s, the fort was reconstructed. At this time it was named Fort Mifflin to honor Thomas Mifflin, a Philadelphia merchant, politician, and Revolutionary War general. In 1848, the U.S. Lighthouse Service decided to build a lighthouse near the fort to aid the increasing ship traffic making a final approach to Philadelphia via the gradually narrowing Delaware River.

The firm of Samuel and Nathan Middleton was paid $4,868 to construct a six-room, two-story frame dwelling with a lantern rising from its roof. An alcove on the front of the dwelling facing the river held a fogbell. The lighthouse was situated on a dirt-filled, wooden pier that extended about 1,900-feet over a shoal in the river northeast of the fort. A white picket fence gave the station a homey appearance. It was accessed by boat either from the fort, a half-mile away, or from Girard Point about two miles to the north near the entrance to the Schuylkill River.

Perhaps in keeping with its martial role as a neighbor of the fort, it was named Fort Mifflin Blockhouse Light. It also was called the Fort Pier Light. (Authors of Guiding Lights of the Delaware River & Bay, Kim Ruth and the late Jim Gowdy, note that there are no known photographs of the Fort Pier Light. The image at the beginning of this profile, from the National Archives, shows what it looked like in a drawing.)

This light station began service with a sixth-order lens and later, in 1875 when the Old Reedy Island Lighthouse was decommissioned at Taylor’s Bridge, Delaware, Fort Mifflin Blockhouse Light was given the Reedy Island fourth-order lens. The beacon was exhibited from the lantern on top of the dwelling at a height of 45-feet above the river. The fogbell gonged eight times every two minutes and then was silent for 42-seconds before its cycle was repeated.

The lighthouse had only three keepers. William Edwards illuminated the light for the first time on December 22, 1848 and was granted a salary of $350 annually, but he remained at the station only until July. George Robinson, who replaced Edwards, was paid $400 a year. Possibly, this was a difficult assignment, for Robinson remained only until September 1853. Benjamin R. Handy, the station’s last keeper, must have found the place and the wage agreeable. He served until the lighthouse was decommissioned in 1881 and earned $550 that final year.

The lighthouse was in use for only thirty-two years. It was a troublesome site requiring many repairs, most due to erosion and ice floes that battered it every spring when the frozen river broke up and chunks of ice drifted south. The pier was damaged repeatedly by ice, water, and collisions from ships that wandered off course in the fog. Fenders and stone riprap failed to secure it. Rotted timbers frequently had to be replaced.

The light was discontinued in October 1881 after another set of range lights, called Fort Mifflin Bar Cut Range, were built in December 1880 on the New Jersey side of the river south of Billingsport to guide vessels between Ship John Shoal and League Island. Also providing coverage for this part of the river were the Horseshoe Shoal Range Lights that went into service just as the Fort Mifflin Blockhouse Light was discontinued. (See next profile.)

The fogbell from the old lighthouse and its striking apparatus were removed and taken to Fort Mifflin itself to serve as the Fort Mifflin Fog Signal. The lighthouse was then sold at auction into private hands in November 1881. It was dismantled and moved away, its whereabouts unknown. A daybeacon was placed on the old pier—a placard with markings to identify the spot in daylight hours. In 1907, the Annual Report of the U.S. Lighthouse Board said of the abandoned pier: “It is now a menace to navigation at night and in heavy weather, and its removal is necessary.” It was taken apart. Nothing remains on site today of either the pier or its lighthouse.

The pacifist founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, refused to build any fortifications to protect the colony when it was established in 1681. But nearly a century later, after the American Colonies grew up and desired to sever the frail umbilicus with their motherland, the burgeoning port of Philadelphia felt it needed a defensive outpost, due partly to its vulnerability in the Delaware River Estuary but mostly because of rising tensions with England.

Benjamin Franklin and John Penn, grandson of William Penn and governor of Philadelphia, ordered a fort built in 1771-1776 on Mud Island near the western shore of the Delaware River where it encounters the mouth of the Schuylkill River. Fort Mercer was built opposite Mud Island on the New Jersey shore of the Delaware River. Philadelphia was, at this time, the largest British port in America and a wealthy one too. But claims to the rich city would soon change.

After the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Revolutionary War began, large spiked boxes called chevaux de frise were lowered to the riverbed between the two forts to prevent British ships from approaching Philadelphia. Guns at both Mud Island and Fort Mercer were trained on the river. Despite this effort, Philadelphia fell to the British after the Battle of Brandywine, and enemy forces assailed the fort on Mud Island from the north. It was heavily bombarded for six weeks. The 400 soldiers garrisoned there fought valiantly but were overwhelmed and captured by the British in November 1777.

After the war, in the late 1790s, the fort was reconstructed. At this time it was named Fort Mifflin to honor Thomas Mifflin, a Philadelphia merchant, politician, and Revolutionary War general. In 1848, the U.S. Lighthouse Service decided to build a lighthouse near the fort to aid the increasing ship traffic making a final approach to Philadelphia via the gradually narrowing Delaware River.

The firm of Samuel and Nathan Middleton was paid $4,868 to construct a six-room, two-story frame dwelling with a lantern rising from its roof. An alcove on the front of the dwelling facing the river held a fogbell. The lighthouse was situated on a dirt-filled, wooden pier that extended about 1,900-feet over a shoal in the river northeast of the fort. A white picket fence gave the station a homey appearance. It was accessed by boat either from the fort, a half-mile away, or from Girard Point about two miles to the north near the entrance to the Schuylkill River.

Perhaps in keeping with its martial role as a neighbor of the fort, it was named Fort Mifflin Blockhouse Light. It also was called the Fort Pier Light. (Authors of Guiding Lights of the Delaware River & Bay, Kim Ruth and the late Jim Gowdy, note that there are no known photographs of the Fort Pier Light. The image at the beginning of this profile, from the National Archives, shows what it looked like in a drawing.)

This light station began service with a sixth-order lens and later, in 1875 when the Old Reedy Island Lighthouse was decommissioned at Taylor’s Bridge, Delaware, Fort Mifflin Blockhouse Light was given the Reedy Island fourth-order lens. The beacon was exhibited from the lantern on top of the dwelling at a height of 45-feet above the river. The fogbell gonged eight times every two minutes and then was silent for 42-seconds before its cycle was repeated.

The lighthouse had only three keepers. William Edwards illuminated the light for the first time on December 22, 1848 and was granted a salary of $350 annually, but he remained at the station only until July. George Robinson, who replaced Edwards, was paid $400 a year. Possibly, this was a difficult assignment, for Robinson remained only until September 1853. Benjamin R. Handy, the station’s last keeper, must have found the place and the wage agreeable. He served until the lighthouse was decommissioned in 1881 and earned $550 that final year.

The lighthouse was in use for only thirty-two years. It was a troublesome site requiring many repairs, most due to erosion and ice floes that battered it every spring when the frozen river broke up and chunks of ice drifted south. The pier was damaged repeatedly by ice, water, and collisions from ships that wandered off course in the fog. Fenders and stone riprap failed to secure it. Rotted timbers frequently had to be replaced.

The light was discontinued in October 1881 after another set of range lights, called Fort Mifflin Bar Cut Range, were built in December 1880 on the New Jersey side of the river south of Billingsport to guide vessels between Ship John Shoal and League Island. Also providing coverage for this part of the river were the Horseshoe Shoal Range Lights that went into service just as the Fort Mifflin Blockhouse Light was discontinued. (See next profile.)

The fogbell from the old lighthouse and its striking apparatus were removed and taken to Fort Mifflin itself to serve as the Fort Mifflin Fog Signal. The lighthouse was then sold at auction into private hands in November 1881. It was dismantled and moved away, its whereabouts unknown. A daybeacon was placed on the old pier—a placard with markings to identify the spot in daylight hours. In 1907, the Annual Report of the U.S. Lighthouse Board said of the abandoned pier: “It is now a menace to navigation at night and in heavy weather, and its removal is necessary.” It was taken apart. Nothing remains on site today of either the pier or its lighthouse.

Excerpted from my  Lighthouses of Pennsylvania

Available on Amazon as an eBook