Year first constructed 1902 (first) Automated 1984 Height 21 m Range 33,336 m Architectural style Modern architecture | Year first lit 1935 (current) Foundation concrete pier Opened 1902 Focal height 25 m Added to NRHP 12 May 2004 | |
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Location Five Finger IslandFrederick SoundAlaskaUnited States Construction reinforced ccncrete tower Similar Cape Decision Light, Point Retreat Light, Eldred Rock Light, Cape St Elias Light, Cape Hinchinbrook Light | ||
The Five Finger Islands Light is a lighthouse located on a small island that lies between Stephens Passage and Frederick Sound in southeastern Alaska. It and Sentinel Island Light Station were the first U.S. government lighthouses opened in Alaska, lit first on March 21, 1902.
It became the last lighthouse in Alaska to be automated on August 14, 1984.
History
In 1901, a contract of $22,500 was awarded to construct a lighthouse on the southernmost of the Five Finger Islands. Completed in 1902, it was a rectangular lighthouse with a square tower, elevated several feet above the surrounding hipped roof. Atop the tower sat a lantern room from which a fourth-order Fresnel lens produced a fixed beam of white light at a focal plane of 68 feet (21 m). The original structure burned down in December 1933. The tower was rebuilt using public works appropriations. The current structure is made of concrete, which was completed and relit in 1935. It was automated by the United States Coast Guard in 1984.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Five Finger Light Station in 2004. The listing was as a historic district including four contributing buildings and one other contributing structure.
The original lighthouse burned. The replacement, built in 1935, "is a good example of Modern Movement architecture, popular in the 1930s for concrete buildings, and adapted by the U.S. Lighthouse Service as the agency replaced the original wood frame lighthouse buildings at many of its sixteen staffed stations in Alaska."
The light station was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.