North Point Light

This article is about the lighthouse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For the lighthouse in Queensland, Australia, see North Point Hummock Light.

North Point Light

North Point Lighthouse in Lake Park
Location	Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Coordinates	43°03′56″N 87°52′17″W
Tower
Foundation	Concrete
Construction	Cast Iron (1888) / Steel (1912)
Height	74 feet (23 m)
Shape	Octagonal
Heritage	National Register of Historic Places listed place
Light
First lit	1888
Deactivated	1994
Focal height	47 m (154 ft)
Lens	Fourth order Fresnel lens

The North Point Light is a lighthouse located in Lake Park on the East Side of Milwaukee in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States.

The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 as reference #84003732. It was also added to the Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey as survey HABS WI-358.

It replaced a previous Cream City brick lighthouse constructed in 1855 that was located too close to the edge of the eroding bluff. In 1888 a cast iron lighthouse was built, but this tower was not tall enough and was placed on top of a steel structure in 1912 raising its height to 74 feet (23 m) and light focal plane to 154 feet (47 m). The tower underwent restoration in 2005.

The first lantern burned mineral oil. A new lens, installed in 1868, is still in use. The present light source is a 25,000 candlepower lamp rotated electrically and controlled by an automatic time clock. The lens focuses a 1,300,000 candlepower signal visible for 25 miles (40 km).

A $984,000 grant was used to restore the light and to open it to the public.

• 
  2012 photo
• 
  Stairs to tower
• 
  Plaque
• 
  USCG archive photo

See also

• Lighthouses in the United States
• Parks of Milwaukee

Specialized Additional reading

• Havighurst, Walter (1943) The Long Ships Passing: The Story of the Great Lakes, Macmillan Publishers.
• Oleszewski, Wes, Great Lakes Lighthouses, American and Canadian: A Comprehensive Directory/Guide to Great Lakes Lighthouses, (Gwinn, Michigan: Avery Color Studios, Inc., 1998) ISBN 0-932212-98-0.
• Pepper, Terry. "Seeing the Light: Lighthouses on the western Great Lakes".
• Sapulski, Wayne S., (2001) Lighthouses of Lake Michigan: Past and Present (Paperback) (Fowlerville: Wilderness Adventure Books) ISBN 0-923568-47-6; ISBN 978-0-923568-47-4.
• Wright, Larry and Wright, Patricia, Great Lakes Lighthouses Encyclopedia Hardback (Erin: Boston Mills Press, 2006) ISBN 1-55046-399-3.

External links

• North Point Lighthouse Friends, Inc.
• Seeing the light
• Lighthouse friends article
• NPS Inventory of Historic Light Stations - Wisconsin
• Library of Congress Historic American Buildings Survey Survey number HABS WI-358
• "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Wisconsin". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on 2017-05-01. North Point Light.