Built: 1st lighthouse 1810 / 2nd lighthouse 1872

Type: 1st lighthouse Octagonal Pyramid / 2nd lighthouse Conical Tower

Height: 1st lighthouse 85 feet / 2nd lighthouse 104 feet

Status: 1st lighthouse Non Active / 2nd lighthouse Active

Location: St. Simons Island, Couper's Point

Deactivated: 1st lighthouse Destroyed During the Civil War 1862

Lens: 1st lighthouse Oil Lamps - 1857 Third Order Fresnel / 2nd lighthouse Whale Oil - Kerosene Lamp - 1934 Electricity

Keepers: 1st lighthouse James Gould (1810 - 1837) / 2nd lighthouse Frederick Osborne (1872-1880) - Carl Olaf Svendsen (1907-1935) David O'Hagan (?-1950) (1939) US Coast Guard

Notes: John Couper in October 17, 1804, a plantation owner on St. Simons Island, deeded four acres of his land, known as "Couper's Point," at the south end of the island for one dollar to the Federal government for the construction of a lighthouse. James Gould of Massachusetts was hired in 1807 by the Treasury Department to build the lighthouse and a one-story frame residence. Original specifications called for the lighthouse to be built of hard brick; however, for economic purposes, most of the material used in the construction was "tabby," a mixture of oyster shell, lime, sand, and water. The uppermost part (12_ feet) was constructed of the "best northward brick." The 75-foot tower, exclusive of the lantern, was an octagonal pyramid, 25 feet in diameter at the base, tapering to 10 feet in diameter at the top. The tabby foundation was eight feet thick at the base. An iron lantern ten feet high and eight feet in diameter rested on top of the brick and tabby tower, making the lighthouse 85 feet tall. Oil lamps were suspended on iron chains in the lantern.
James Gould served as keeper for twenty-seven years. Twenty years after his departure, the lighthouse was outfitted with a third-order Fresnel lens in 1857. When the Confederate troops abandoned the island in 1862, they dynamited the tower and keeper's cottage, so they would not benefit the Union forces.
Following the Civil War, noted Georgia architect Charles B. Cluskey drew up plans for a new lighthouse and dwelling on the island. The impressive Victorian duplex and tower were complete in 1872 at a cost of $45,000. The light from a third-order, L. Sautter Company Fresnel lens was first shown on September 1 of that year. The lens is a fixed lens, meaning it does not contain any flash panels and thus produces a steady light, however, there are four flash panels that revolve around the outside of the lens producing a bright flash once per minute.
Cluskey did not live to see his lighthouse completed as he died of yellow fever in 1871. Frederick Osborne, the first head keeper at the new lighthouse, repeatedly complained about the unhealthy living conditions on the island. The Lighthouse Board eventually drained the ponds near the lighthouse, greatly reducing the number of mosquitoes and improving life at the station.
On a Sunday morning in March of 1880, head keeper Osborne and his assistant had an altercation on the lighthouse grounds, wherein the assistant shot Osborne dead. The assistant was later acquitted of murder charges, which may have prevented a peaceful rest for the departed Osborne, whose service was cut short. During Carl Svendsen's service as keeper, which lasted from 1907 to 1935, he and his wife repeatedly heard mysterious footfalls, which would send their dog Jink into a frenzy. To this day, people claim to hear inexplicable footsteps in the tower.
In 1890, the brick oil house was constructed on the grounds to store the volatile kerosene, which replaced the increasingly expensive whale oil as the lamp fuel. The kerosene was in turn replaced by electricity in 1934, and the station was automated sixteen years later in 1950.
The lighthouse keeper's house served as a home for the lighthouse keepers from 1872 until 1950 when, following the complete automation of the lighthouse in 1953, the last lighthouse keeper, David O'Hagan, retired, and the passageway was taken down to separate the lighthouse from the keeper's house. The U.S. Government then began using the dwelling as office space. It was given in 1960 to the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2004, the lighthouse was deeded to the Coastal Georgia Historical Society under the Lighthouse Preservation Act after a long a successful lease arrangement with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Society. Today, with the assistance of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the light continues as an Aid to Navigation, shining seaward every night and during inclement weather.