Look up at the St. Augustine Light Station, a privately maintained, active lighthouse on Anastasia Island's north end. The current lighthouse stands at the north end of Anastasia Island and was built between 1871 and 1874. This tower is the second lighthouse tower in St. Augustine; the first was lit officially by the American territorial government in May 1824 as Florida’s first lighthouse.
Long before that, both the Spanish and the British governments operated a major aid to navigation here, including a series of wooden watch towers and beacons dating from 1565. The present tower, its original first-order Fresnel Lens, and the Light Station grounds are owned by the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum, Inc., a not-for-profit maritime museum that is open to the public 360 days a year. Admission fees support continued preservation of the lighthouse and five other historic structures, and admissions and museum memberships fund programs in maritime archaeology, traditional wooden boatbuilding, and maritime education.
Notice the first-order Fresnel lens overhead and know your visit helps preserve this tower and five other historic structures.