Biloxi, Mississippi
Harbour Lights #480

In 1847, Mississippi Representative Jefferson Davis brought forward legislation that would fund the construction of three lighthouses on the Mississippi Sound. At the same time, the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury, Stephen Pleasonton, announced he intended “to put a Cast Iron Light House at Biloxi and this will prove the utility which they may be of.” It was the determination of these two men that brought Biloxi Light into reality.

Marine and Steamboat Engine and Boilermakers, Murray and Hazlehurst Vulcan Works in Baltimore were selected as the foundry to cast the iron tower that was then sent by ship to the Gulf Coast to be bolted together. The 61-foot tower, lined with locally made bricks, was completed in the spring of 1848.
At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, a group of citizens known as “the Home Guard,” ordered the light extinguished and seized the keys to the tower. When the war ended, a Fifth Order Fresnel lens was installed and a coat of black tar was smeared onto the tower to prevent it from rusting. One of the great myths of the post-Civil War era was that lighthouses were “painted” black to mourn the death of President Abraham Lincoln. The tower was repainted white in 1969.

While the first keeper was a man, Marcellus J. Howard, Biloxi Light would earn the distinction in lighthouse history as having female keepers for more years than any lighthouse in the United States. Perry Younghans was appointed keeper after the Civil War.Younghans died in his first year of service. His wife Maria, who tended the light for over 50 years, succeeded him. Upon Maria’s retirement in 1919, her daughter Miranda became keeper, serving for 10 years until the light was electrified.
Biloxi Light has withstood many threats from hurricanes and beach erosion during its lifetime. Once in 1860, a storm weakened the foundation, causing the tower to tilt two feet off perpendicular. Workers removed soil from the opposite side and the tower settled back into its vertical position. Miraculously, Pleasonton’s cast-iron shell protected the interior bricks from collapsing!

Today, this historic landmark, owned by the city of Biloxi, is the only lighthouse in the United States to stand in the middle of a four-lane highway, U. S. Highway 90.