Toledo Harbor Lighthouse
Location 11
Owner: Todd Wilson
The Toledo Harbor Lighthouse is located about five miles north of Maumee Bay State Park's shores. The lighthouse marks the entrance to the Toledo Shipping Channel where Lake Erie and Maumee Bay meet. Boaters are generally destined for the Maumee River. In 1897 the Toledo shipping channel was dredged wider and deeper to allow increased shipping to the Port of Toledo located in the Maumee River, furthering the need for a new lighthouse. The Army Corps of Engineers designed the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse and construction began in 1901. A 20-foot deep stone crib is at the base of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse. The Toledo Lighthouse is four stories high with a steel frame and an attached one-story fog signal annex building. The Lighthouse has Romanesque arches and buff brick. Its original cost was $152,000. The total height is 85 feet. First illuminated May 23, 1904, the 3-order Fresnel lens featured a 180-degree bulls eye, two smaller 60-degree bulls eyes and a ruby red half cylinder glass made in Paris, France by Barbier and Bernard. A weighted clockwork mechanism made the light rotate. The original Fennel lens could be seen from up to twenty-four miles.