Look up at the Key West Lighthouse. The first Key West lighthouse was a 65-foot (20 m) tower completed in 1825, fitted with 15 lamps in 15-inch (380 mm) reflectors. The project gained approval in 1824, though its first contracted brickmason, Samuel B. Lincoln, became the likely victim of a hurricane when his ship disappeared en route to Florida.
Early plans had called for a tower on an outer key, but those islands proved to be completely submerged at different times of the year, so decision-makers placed the light at the southernmost point of Key West instead. The first keeper, Michael Mabrity, died in 1832, and his widow Barbara took over, serving as lighthouse keeper for 32 years. But the sea can be merciless: the Great Havana Hurricane of 1846 destroyed the lighthouse.
The USS Morris, wrecked during the same storm, reported that “a white sand beach covers the spot where Key West Lighthouse stood. Barbara Mabrity survived, yet fourteen people who had sought refuge in the tower died, including seven members of her family. Picture the salt air here, and the southernmost point of Key West just below.