In the photo, you can see there is a fence separating the principal keeper’s side and the assistant keepers’ side both on the West and East of the house. People often ask us, “Why wasn’t the lighthouse built on the beach” but of course, in the 1870s the whole site was beach. (N&O, 11/05/63 p.1) As a result, trees and bushes proliferated. Additionally, after the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1963, the State Wildlife Resources Commission approved $15K to protect Currituck Sound from heavy inflows of salt water by creating two and three rows of sand fences in a 13.5 mile area on either side of the lighthouse. Once those dunes were built and cattle were no longer free-roaming, vegetation on the west side of the dunes was much more protected from salt, sand, wind and from getting nibbled. Corolla may have been the last spot where the dune system of the Outer Banks was built along the oceanfront in the 1930s and 1940s. Most obviously to those of you who have seen the site, there are many fewer trees and bushes in 1893 than in 2021. Examining it, we find a few interesting differences between the station in the 19 th century and today. This 1893 photo is the oldest photo we have of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. We can only imagine that Lovey is trying to get boys down for a nap in the bedroom with the windows open above. Following this guesswork, we will assume that Fabius is the man standing next to the woman on the north side of the porch and William Riley Austin is the man to his right. So, since we can see the waist of the woman on the north porch, we will assume that that was Fabius’s wife – Frances Emma Simpson – and not an 8-month pregnant Lovey Austin. On the day of Herbert Bamber’s visit Austin’s wife Lovey was actually eight months pregnant with their first daughter. William Riley Austin already had three young sons. (We have been working diligently on bios for our keepers – more on that soon we hope!) By 1893 Fabius was married, although had no children yet. On the day of the photograph (June 12), 1 st assistant keeper Fabius Simpson had been at the Currituck Beach Lighthouse for eight years. Because the photo gets blurry when we magnify it, we had to do a little sleuthing to determine which keeper on the north side was which. Remember that our little keeper’s house was brought over on a barge in 1920 so before that point, three keepers shared the duplex – the principal keeper lived on the south side and the assistants together on the north. The two assistant keepers were living together with their families on the north side of the keepers’ duplex. He and his wife, Ida, had four children at this point. At the time of the photo, he was 31 and had lived at the Currituck Beach Lighthouse for five years. The keeper on the right in the photo is Principal Keeper Hinnant. Thanks to this man, Herbert Bamber, who had come from surveying Bodie Island and Hatteras Lighthouses in the days prior, we have photographs of our then-keepers and their families: Lazarus Hinnant, Fabius Simpson, and William Riley Austin. In June 1893, a “government surveyor,” as the lighthouse keeper called him in his journal notes that month, arrived to survey the Currituck Beach Light Station in his capacity as assistant engineer for the U.S. Prefer to learn about this with a video? Click here if so. Above, the notable 1893 photograph, taken by Herbert Bamber on JWhat’s in a Photograph? A Second Look at the Oldest Image of the Currituck Beach Lighthouseīy: Meghan Agresto, Currituck Beach Lighthouse Site Manager & Historian
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