Currituck Beach Light
Outer Banks
Corolla NC
2015

https://www.outerbanks.com/currituck-beach-lighthouse.html


The Currituck Beach Lighthouse is the northernmost lighthouse on the Outer Banks and the state of North Carolina. It’s also the only coastal North Carolina lighthouse to have an unpainted brick exterior, which makes it stand out among the other black and white colored lighthouses along the Outer Banks.


The Currituck Beach Light is a lighthouse located on the Outer Banks in Corolla, North Carolina. The Currituck Beach Light was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1973.

Climb the 220 steps to the top for a breathtaking view while learning from docents, exhibits, and brochures about the lives of lighthouse keepers, the history and significance of the light station, and the original 1st order Fresnel lens. The beacon has been an active public aid to navigation since 1875 (now 3s on, 17s off, since 1933). The site has been preserved thanks to the Outer Banks Conservationists along with the State of NC and USCG through the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000.

The Currituck Beach Lighthouse, located in the heart of Corolla, borders the historic Whalehead in Historic Corolla and still functions as a guide for passing mariners. At 162' feet tall, the lighthouse's First Order Fresnel light, (the largest size available for American lighthouses), can be seen for 18 nautical miles as the light rotates in 20 second increments.

This lighthouse stands out for its distinctive red exterior. This design was intentional, to set the Currituck Lighthouse apart from its Outer Banks neighbors. After completion, the lighthouse was left unpainted, allowing visitors to marvel at the sheer number of bricks involved in its construction.

For centuries, hundreds of ships were lost in the treacherous waters off of the Outer Banks. In the Northern Outer Banks, ships travelling close to shore to avoid the swift and tumultuous Gulf Stream could easily get shipwrecked against the shoreline, as the miles of Currituck's barrier island was relatively uninhabited, with nothing but dark coastline to confuse and disorient the passing sailors.

In response, construction began on the Currituck Beach Lighthouse in 1872, and three years later on December 1, 1875, the lighthouse first glowed as a beacon to passing ships. Adjacent to the lighthouse, a Victorian style lighthouse keepers' home was built in 1876, providing housing for the principal keeper's family and two assistants' families. The lighthouse was electrified in 1933, and the keeper's positions were discontinued in 1937. Over the next four decades, the lighthouse keepers' home began to fall into disrepair.

Seasonally, the lighthouse itself is open to visitors, who can climb the 220 steps to the top for unparalleled views of the Whalehead in Historic Corolla, the Currituck Sound, and the Atlantic Ocean. If you make the climb, be sure and pause at both the base of the lighthouse and the first two landings for museum quality exhibits showcasing the history of the lighthouse, the lighthouse keepers, and the giant Fresnel Lens, still in operation.