We moved to Big Oaks Family Campground in Rehoboth, DE on 06/13/2007 for a week. On 06/16/2007 we visited Fenwick Island Lighthouse in Fenwick Island, DE. As there was a sixty-mile gap between Cape Henlopen, the lighthouse at the southern entrance to Delaware Bay, and the next lighthouse to the south on Assateague Island, a beacon somewhere between the two was certainly justified. Congress appropriated $25,000 for Fenwick Island Lighthouse in 1856, and on January 11, 1858 a ten-acre tract for the station was obtained from Mary C. Hall for a mere $50. The tower, built of brick, stood seventy-five feet, six inches from its base to the gallery that encircled the watch-room. The inside diameter at the base of the double-walled tower was eight and a half feet, and a central cast-iron spiral stairway provided access to the lantern, where a third-order L. Sautter & Cie Fresnel lens was installed. Picture is of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse.
Overfalls , Delaware Breakwater Lighthouse, Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse and Fort Miles State Historical Site at Cape Henlopen State Park all in Lewes, DE. LV 118 was built in 1938, and served from 1938-1972 at Cornfield Point, Cross Rip, and Boston. The ship is 114 feet long, and housed two 375 mm electric lenses 57 feet above the water line, visible up to 12 miles. Two diaphone fog signals were audible up to 5 miles. Fourteen crewmen manned the ship. The crew rotated two weeks on and one week off. After receiving serious storm damage in 1970, the ship was decommissioned in 1972. The ship was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The ship was eventually moved to Lewes, DE, where the ship was renamed Overfalls, after the nearby lightship station.
Stones were removed from the breakwater to the depth of eleven feet to form a pit for a concrete foundation. The ironwork for the tower, which had been provided at a cost of $5,875, was delivered to Lewes by July of 1885. The tower, consisting of four stories to house the keepers, was topped by a circular watchroom and octagonal lantern room. Work had progressed to the point that the light could be displayed for the first time on October 2, 1855, though the station’s Daboll trumpet fog signal would not be operational until November, and work on the tower’s brick lining and interior woodwork was not completed until December. The finished tower, given a coating of brown paint, stood fifty-one feet high from its base to the focal plane of its black lantern. A work crew returned the following year to erect a permanent wharf and oil house on the breakwater. Picture is of the Delaware Breakwater Lighthouse — through binoculars.
On November 20, 1908, a fourth-order, incandescent oil-vapor light, illuminating the entire horizon, and flashing white every 12 seconds, was established by the Harbor Of Refuge Lighthouse. The white, hexagonal, three-story frame structure, with lead-colored trimmings, rested on a brown cylindrical iron foundation. This foundation was located on the southerly end of the Harbor of Refuge Breakwater, southwesterly side of the entrance to Delaware Bay and was completed in 1907. It consists of a concrete block 40 feet in diameter and 15 feet 6 inches high, resting upon the encrockment of the breakwater. The superstructure consists of a center column of iron, a basement 32 feet in diameter of two courses of iron plates, and a hexagonal frame superstructure from the basement to the lantern. The fog-signal is a first class siren operated by compressed air. The picture is of the Harbor Of Refuge Lighthouse — through binoculars.
Fort Miles, built in 1941, was a massive coastal fort and was designed to defend assets along the Delaware River and Bay such as oil refineries and factories, as well as the city of Philadelphia during the Second World War. It was one of the largest and most heavily armed coastal forts ever built. The picture is of the Fort Miles SHS 1903 3-inch guns.
Dover, DE on 06/17/2007. The Legislative Hall is a Georgian Revival colonial structure of handmade brick, and it has an 18th century style interior. The dedication of the Legislative Hall took place in 1933. The Legislative Hall replaced the State House which is located opposite the Legislative Hall on the mall. The Legislative Hall today provides formal chambers for the Senate and the House of Representatives as well as the General Assembly’s nonpartisan staff agencies: The picture is of the DE Capitol’s east side.
