Historic Light Station Information

& Photography

MOBILE BAY / "MIDDLE BAY" LIGHT--AL

Middle Bay Light, circa late 19th century:  Note the keeper's wife standing in the open doorway, the curtain around the lens, and the small boat hanging from the station's davits.

Location: MOBILE HARBOR/MOBILE BAY

Station Established: 1885

Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1885

Operational: No

Automated: Yes, in 1935

Deactivated: 1967

Foundation Materials: Screw piling with platform

Construction Materials: Wood

Tower Shape: Hexagonal without lantern

Markings/Pattern: White dwelling with red piles

Height: 41'

Relationship to Other Structure: Integral

Original Lens: Fourth Order, 1885

Characteristic: Fixed white varied by a red flash every 30 seconds

Fog Signal: Bell struck by machinery every 5 seconds

Historical Information:

• The station was activated in 1885.
  

• 1916 was a busy year. The keeper's wife gave birth to a baby that summer at the station. According to the Alabama Lighthouse Association web site the keeper brought a milk cow to the station and corralled it on a section of the lower deck because his wife was unable to nurse the newborn baby. All had to be evacuated when the station survived but was damaged by a hurricane that year.
  

• The light was automated in 1935.
  

• Lighthouse was deactivated in 1967.
  

• In 1984 the lighthouse was stabilized by Middle Bay Light Centennial Commission in preparation for the centennial celebration.
  

• Mobile Middle Bay Lighthouse was placed on National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Reference #74000429
  

• In 1996 the Coast Guard loaned the Fresnel lens from the lighthouse to the Ft. Morgan Museum for public display.
  

• In 2002 restoration efforts were begun to repair the light.
  

Middle Bay Light, circa 1950: photo dated December, 1950;  Note how the lantern room has been removed and replaced with a light on a pole. One of the screw-pile iron legs has been replaced with a heavy timber.

National Parks Service Architectural Drawings from 1966

Mobile_Bay-AL--1966.pdf

National Parks Service Report from 1966