Built: 1885

Type: Screwpile / hexagonal-shaped cottage with a lantern perched on top

Height: 54 Feet

Status: Deactivated: 1967 - Under restoration

Location: Mobile Harbor/Mobile Bay

Access: Boat

Notes: Grant had greatly improved access to Mobile Bay and the port at Mobile, however, the twenty nine miles between these points were still hazard for mariners. Mobile Bay is quite shallow, and in the early 1800s the best shipping channel inside the bay was only marked by wooden stakes and copper-clad barrels. It wasn't until a channel with a depth of 17 feet was dredged in the 1880s that large vessels could safely reach Mobile. This improvement prompted the construction of a lighthouse at the bend in the dogleg channel, which was located midway along the route. Given its location in roughly the center of the bay, the lighthouse is known as both Middle Bay Lighthouse and Mobile Bay Lighthouse.
Due to high labor costs in the post-Civil-War South, the lighthouse was prefabricated in the North and then shipped to Mobile Point, where it arrived in 1885. The screwpile lighthouse consisted of a wooden hexagonal dwelling with a roof that slopped upwards to the centrally located lantern room. The lighthouse was supported by seven legs -one in the middle, and a single leg extending from each corner of the superstructure. After the piles had been screwed into the bottom of the bay, the structure suddenly settled seven and a half feet on September 12, 1885. Wooden piles were hurriedly driven around the screwpiles and succeeded in stabilizing the lighthouse. On December 1, 1885, the light from a fourth-order Fresnel lens first cast its beam from atop the lighthouse.
In the summer of 1916, the light-keeper's wife gave birth. The keeper faced a daunting problem with his wife unable to nurse the hungry newborn. There was no refrigeration and supplies were inconsistent. His solution was simple. A milk cow was brought to the lighthouse and corralled on a section of the deck. Both cow and baby survived, but were later evacuated before a hurricane hit the coast.
In 1935, the light was electrified. During the next several decades, no keepers were present to care for the lighthouses, and it fell into a state of disrepair.
The lighthouse is in need of periodic maintenance and refurbishing. By 2002, the lighthouse had deteriorated quite badly, and a major restoration effort was initiated by Thompson Engineering under a $349,400 contract form the Alabama Historical Commission. As part of this project, the lighthouse received a new slate roof, and damaged wood and corroded tie rods were replaced. The roughly fifteen-foot-tall pyramidal structure that displayed a red flashing light atop the lighthouse was replaced by a six-foot pole supporting a solar powered red light.