History of Sabine Pass Lighthouse

Brief History

Now sightless after 95 years of continuous light to the world’s seamen, the Sabine Pass Lighthouse stands impressively in the marsh recesses that surround it and marks the terrain of extreme southwest Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
In 1838, President Martin Van Buren established the Port Sabine Military Reservation, which originally contained 20,575 acres, but was later reduced to the lighthouse site of 46 acres.  Building of the lighthouse started in 1854, at a point where the Sabine and Neches Rivers join as they flow to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Sabine Pass Lighthouse is built on a mud bank only three feet above high tide.  The lighthouse is constructed of brick with an octagonal shaped tower.  The third-order lens showed a steady white light interrupted by a flash that stands 85 feet above sea level.  The lamps were lit in March or April of 1857.
The light was extinguished on the morning of August 17, 1861, by order of Confederate authorities in Sabine.  The following January, the lamps, lens, and clockworks were dismantled and crated for storage.  Extinguishing the light caused much trouble for Federal ships attempting to steam into the pass and attack Fort Griffin.
The light at Sabine Pass Lighthouse came on again at the close of the Civil War on December 23, 1865.
In 1886, a severe storm whipped up an eight-foot tide that surrounded the tower with five feet of water.  Every building except the lighthouse with its 18-inch thick walls and its eight buttresses were destroyed.
A hurricane in 1915 forced the keepers to turn the revolving lens by hand when tower vibrations put the clockwork out of order.
In early 1952, when the decision to extinguish the light and to tear down the lighthouse was made, Steve Purley, the lighthouse keeper was furious.  He started a movement called the Sabine Pass Lighthouse Association to save the lighthouse.  He received enormous support, but all attempts failed.
Finally, the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission obtained title to the property under Public Law 537.  The lighthouse was passed on to several holders, but there was never money to restore it.  The lighthouse was officially entered into the National Register of Historic Places December 17, 1982, and in 1986, the General Service Administration put the station up for auction. The lighthouse and its 46-acre tract of land was purchased for $55,000 by two Houston businessmen, P.G. Grenader and W.C. Pielop, Jr.
Just last year, the lighthouse the sons of Grenader and Pielop donated the lighthouse and the surrounding land to the Cameron Preservation Alliance.