LORAIN LIGHTHOUSE
1837 and 1917 (Retired)

Breakwater

Harbor
Lorain, OH

The first lighthouse for the Lorain Harbor was a wooden tower at the end of a harbor pier in 1837. In 1917 the present-day lighthouse was built by the Army Corps of Engineers on a huge concrete foundation to resist the severe waves and storms on Lake Erie. The concrete-and-steel walls are ten inches thick and three stories high. A few feet above the red-tiled roof is a small square tower which for years housed a fourth-order Fresnel lens flashing a light that could be seen for fifteen miles. In 1965 a small, automated light tower was placed at a newly constructed breakwater on the opposite side of the harbor. The Coast Guard vacated the old lighthouse and planned to tear it down.

The citizens of Lorain formed a committee to save the structure and were successful. Today the lighthouse serves only as a daymark and can be viewed from shore.

LIGHTHOUSE - 40' / OPEN - No / MUSEUM - No
LIGHTHOUSE INDEX