Discover Cape Romain Light Station's Rich History

Many centuries ago, the general features of the South Carolina Atlantic coastline as we know it today formed, including Cape Romain and its neighboring sand shoal.

These features were noted by first the Spanish and then the French and British explorers, beginning in the end of the 16th century.

Before the Revolution, there were only a handful of lighthouses on the East Coast, all associated with harbors of colonial cities, including Boston, New York, and Charleston, and the entrance to Chesapeake Bay.

A clause included in the newly ratified U.S. Constitution in 1787 established a U.S. Lighthouse Service, but it was poorly organized and administrated for years.

In 1792 a privately funded wind powered sawmill was built on a marsh island near the present site of the Cape Romain Light Station. At that time the sources of power in all human enterprises were limited. They included the power of man, animal, water and wind.

The windmill was sited to take advantage of the treeless marshes around the site which meant steadier wind sources for operation of the mill. The creeks and rivers were used to transport saw logs to the work site and lumber carrying vessels used the same water courses to haul the lumber and timbers to construction sites.

The rapid development of more efficient steam power in the early 19th century, as well as the sawmill’s isolated location, by 1820 had made it obsolete. Its equipment was moved, leaving only a 60 ft. tower in place. The tower had a superficial resemblance to the Charleston harbor light and sailors soon began to complain about the resulting confusion.

At the time of establishment of the United States, almost everything moved on the water. As the new country prospered and grew, the need for an effective system of navigational aids quickly became evident.

The development of the U.S. Lighthouse Service was slow and inefficient, lagging far behind the efforts of European seagoing nations.

In 1825 the U.S. Congress finally funded a lighthouse at Cape Romain, completed in 1827.

This tower was a product of a collaboration between the director of the U.S. Lighthouse Service Stephen Pleasonton and an independent contractor named Winslow Lewis.

Pleasonton was the Fifth Auditor of the U.S. Treasury and had no experience in the field of nautical affairs at the time of his appointment. His understanding of the business of providing the country with good navigational aid was seriously limited during his entire time in office. His focus was to provide a service at the barest minimum cost, while remaining oblivious to rapidly changing lighthouse technology taking place in France and England.

Winslow Lewis was a New Englander who had a short career as a ship’s captain before becoming a self-taught light house builder. His depth of understanding of tower building and light technology remained rudimentary during his entire career. 

Nevertheless, Pleasonton had him construct many U. S. lighthouses and gave him a monopoly providing the lighthouse service with lamps and the whale oil used in these lamps.

The result of the Pleasonton/Lewis partnership was a lighthouse service that was of far less value to sailors than the service of the other maritime nations of that time. 

The French shared their new lighting technologies with the British and they reciprocated with their advances in tower building to their mutual benefit. Meanwhile, the U.S. continued using the outdated techniques and technologies of Pleasanton and Lewis.

Finally in 1852 the U.S. Lighthouse Service was completely reorganized along the lines taken by the French and English. Pleasanton and Lewis were replaced by a board of directors composed of professional engineers, naval officers, and commercial seamen. This reorganization had a rapid and positive effect, quickly leading to brighter, more dependable U.S. lighthouses use the French and English technologies.

One of the first of these “new design” towers was build at Cape Romain, beside the 1827 light. It was a first order light on a 156-foot-tall tower with a 60 second “flash” period, visible at 18 miles. It was funded in 1855 and began operation on January 1, 1858. It was quickly declared to be a complete success. In the following decades dozens of the new style lights were built along the U. S. coastlines.

The Cape Romain Light Station was in service from 1827 to 1947, except for the years of the Civil War and World War II. By the end of WWII, rapid advances in navigational aid and technology made the Cape Romain Light obsolete and it was decommissioned in the summer of 1947.

Soon after that the Cape Romain Light Station was conveyed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and became part of the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge.

Tommy Graham

March 2025