The Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge Staff will host an Open House at the light station on Seahorse Key on Saturday, July 12 from 8:30 am until 4:00 pm. This is one of two times a year that the lighthouse and grounds are open to the general public. Access to the island is by boat only. On 28 September 1850, Congress appropriated $8,000 for the erection of a lighthouse on Seahorse Key and $4,000 more was added to that sum on 31 August 1852. On 02 September 1851, President Millard Fillmore directed that Seahorse Key, consisting of 109 acres, be reserved from sale for lighthouse purposes.
A claim to the island made by Samuel Johnson was held invalid in 1854. The Lighthouse Board approved the plans for the erection of a lighthouse on 30 January 1854 and by the end of March, a working party was dispatched from Cedar Keys Harbor to the island. The first light keeper, William Wilson, took possession of the structure on 20 July 1854. Wilson is buried in the cemetery located on the island.
The light was first exhibited on 01 August 1854 with a Fresnel fourth order light which was described as a "fixed light, varied by flashes every minute." The light tower was placed on a white brick keeper`s dwelling and rose 75 feet above sea level. It was visible for 15 miles.
During the Civil War, the light was extinguished but on 23 August 1866, it was relighted after having been thoroughly overhauled and repaired. A new kitchen was built in 1867 and new insulators for lightening rods supplied. In 1880 the structure was whitewashed and all wood work repainted. The gallery around the dwelling was repaired in 1882 where it had been damaged by lightening and the station required a new set of "chariot wheels" to place it in fair condition. The gallery on all four sides of the structure was rebuilt in
1886. The main dwelling was thoroughly overhauled in 1891 and a new passageway with a shingled roof built from the kitchen to the main house. The fence around the station was rebuilt and a new brick oil house with 8 inch walls, slate roof and concrete floor erected. In 1897 repairs were made necessary by the storm damage which incurred in September of the previous year. The following year a set of three new improved fourth order lamps were furnished and in 1900, the revolving machinery was thoroughly repaired. In 1905, a Navy wireless telegraph station was erected on the site. The light station was discontinued in 1915. Don`t miss this opportunity to visit one of Levy County`s historic landmarks. Pictured above is the Cedar Keys Light Station on Seahorse Key as it looked on 17 January 1893. The two men standing on the gallery are wearing the uniform of the U.S. Lighthouse Service which was established in 1789. The Light House Service went under the United States Coast Guard in 1939. Photograph: National Archives Lighthouse Collection, Washington, DC. | 
