Currituck Lighthouse: Final link to illuminate N.C. coast

You might say there are “seven wonders” of coastal North Carolina – its seven standing seaside lighthouses. 

Let’s begin a journey to visit them all, moving from north to south. 

At the top right corner of North Carolina is Currituck County. Here, we find the Currituck Beach Lighthouse at Corolla on the Northern Outer Banks.

 

“Currituck” is a native Algonquin tribal word meaning “the land of the wild goose.” 

In the 1850s, the U.S. Congress “meant to” resolve a serious coastal issue – a 40-mile stretch of “dark coast” that existed along the Atlantic Ocean shoreline. 

There was no beacon extending out to sea between Cape Henry (Va.), north of Virginia Beach at the entry to Chesapeake Bay, and the light cast forth at North Carolina’s Bodie Island, near Oregon Inlet. 

Without a “guiding light,” ships were blind to the shoals that jutted forth out into ocean. 

The Civil War interrupted construction plans, however, and the project to build the Currituck Lighthouse was delayed and delayed again until 1874. 

As soon as architect Dexter Stetson of Massachusetts finished building a replacement lighthouse at Bodie Island in 1872, he was instructed to start on one just like it at Currituck, using the same blueprints.

 

Stetson completed the 162-foot Currituck Lighthouse, built with more than 1 million bricks, in 1874. 

Curiously, the Currituck and Bodie Island structures are not identical twins. Currituck outstretches Bodie Island by 8 feet.

 

Currituck is natural red brick, not painted in the familiar colors of white and black. Nathaniel G. Burris, head keeper at the Currituck Lighthouse, was more or less given instructions to just “flip the switch ASAP” to warn sea captains of the danger area. Don’t fret about paint, he was told. 

The lamp was lit on Dec. 1, 1875. The Currituck Lighthouse was the last major brick lighthouse built on the Northern Outer Banks. To distinguish it from other regional lighthouses, its exterior was left unpainted. 

The keepers’ quarters building at Currituck was a Victorian duplex. The head keeper’s family occupied one side of the house, while the two assistant keepers’ families shared the other half.

 

The U.S. Lighthouse Service was merged into the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939, the same year the Currituck Lighthouse was automated, eliminating the need for resident keepers on site.

 Dr. Kraig Anderson, creator of Lighthousefriends.com, said the Currituck Lighthouse was no longer needed after World War II, so it was basically abandoned and left to deteriorate. 

Ownership of the 31-acre site, was transferred to the State of North Carolina in 1952. 

In 1980, a nonprofit organization was formed – the Outer Banks Conservationists (OBC), Inc. Its purpose was to restore the Currituck Lighthouse property. 

Incredibly, OBC was able to raise sufficient private funds to open the lighthouse to the public in 1990. Visitors can climb the 220 steps to the top and walk out on the observation deck for a nominal fee during the spring-fall months. 

Near the lighthouse are other cultural and natural resources for visitors to enjoy, such as the Whalehead, a 21,000-square-foot mansion and waterfowl hunting club that was built for Edward Collings Knight Jr. and his second wife, Marie Louise Joséphine LeBel Knight.

 

Currituck County purchased the old estate in 1992 and restored the facility. It is now a museum and events venue…not to mention haunted. 

A new attraction, the Currituck Maritime Museum, opened in 2021. The 10,000-square-foot facility is owned and operated by the Currituck County government.