Cast iron was used as a building material for lighthouses instead of steel for several reasons. Steel, an alloy made from iron and carbon, wasn’t produced in large quantities until the 1850s and was more expensive than cast iron. Steel is much stronger than cast iron and is not brittle, but it lacks one major advantage of cast iron: Iron weathers better than steel. Cast iron, or iron, is a single element and doesn’t allow for water molecules to replace any of other molecules, as happens with an alloy. For that reason, water can’t permeate it molecule by molecule, like it does with steel; basically, rust stops at the surface. Had lighthouses been made of steel, they would have long since rusted away.

This type of skeletal lighthouse was developed in the early 1860s for several reasons. Sandy soil along Florida’s coasts made if difficult to build adequate foundations to support the heavy weight of brick lighthouses. A cast-iron skeletal structure was much lighter, so its foundation didn’t need to be as massive. Additionally, shifting sands often threatened lighthouses as beaches eroded and shorelines changed. Skeletal lighthouses could be disassembled and moved since they were bolted together in small sections. Skeletal structures also cost less to build than brick ones.

Originally, there were two keepers’ houses and several other outbuildings by the lighthouse. Four hundred feet of cedar picket fencing painted white surrounded them. Two above-ground cisterns made of wood supplied the keepers and their families with fresh water. A 209-foot-long pier extended from the lighthouse; later, another 200 feet of pier and a boathouse were added. All of that is gone now, but people still enjoy the island for its lovely beaches, shells, and peaceful atmosphere.

I grew up and still live in Clearwater, Florida, just a few miles south of Tarpon Springs and the Anclote Key Lighthouse. Thirty years ago, my parents would sometimes pack a lunch and take our small boat out to the 180-acre island. There we would spend the day on the white sand beaches, swimming and collecting shells. Years later, I owned a Hobie Cat and would sail to the island. The lighthouse was automated in 1952 and was therefore unmanned and officially closed to the public, but I remember it always being open because of vandalism. People constantly found a way to tear down the fence and break open the heavy steel door. I can remember going up to the top of the light and looking at the small, third-order, pineapple-shaped Fresnel lens, which even then was badly destroyed. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1985, and today there is nothing left of the lens. Even the floor of the lantern room has been broken and cracked from someone’s beating it with a sledgehammer. Needless to say, all the windows have been knocked out. People have even stolen bricks from the old oil house and the many brick walkways for their own use. Efforts are being made to restore the old lighthouse, but when I did these paintings nothing had been done. Everything near the lighthouse has become overgrown, been spray painted, or abused in some way.

The nearby town of Tarpon Springs is a small, active community, its population mainly of Greek heritage, and is best known for its sponge industry.

Tourism seems to be the predominant industry with 750,000 tourists visiting the old sponge docks each year. The quaint shops are still full of those early childhood souvenirs of shell lamps and bins with dried seahorses and sand dollars I use to love as a boy. The restaurants and bakeries all serve up delicious traditional Greek pastries and although tourism overshadows industry, Tarpon Springs remains the largest natural sponge market in the world, with annual revenues over five million dollars. Today all but a few of the colorful sponge boats are gone, along with their traditional hard hat divers. They have all been replaced by more ordinary-looking boats with scuba divers. Many shrimp boats now make Tarpon Springs their home port as well. Instead of using the Anclote Key Lighthouse to guide their way to the Anclote River and Tarpon Springs, boats now make use of a tall smokestack with a flashing strobe light from the power plant at the mouth of the river as a day marker and lighthouse for all practical purposes.