Bodie Island Light Station Cultural Landscape Report Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Hitchcock, Susan

The light station is located on Bodie Island of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in Dare County, North Carolina. The Bodie Island Light Station was designed and constructed by the United States Light-House Board. The purpose of this cultural landscape report (CLR) is to document the physical development of the light station property beginning with the construction of the first light station in 1848 to the present. A site history is followed by a description of the existing condition of the property and an analysis of historical significance and integrity. This includes an evaluation of the Bodie Island Light Station’s historic and contemporary landscape characteristics, such as changes in spatial organization, circulation, and vegetation. The CLR finds that integrity of location, setting, feeling, workmanship, materials, and association remain high. The station retains a nineteenth and early twentieth-century appearance with few modifications. The CLR then presents treatment issues and recommendations to direct the active management of the cultural landscape. The overarching treatment associated with the historic landscape is preservation/rehabilitation. The lighthouse and integral oil house underwent a multi-phased restoration effort that was completed in December 2012. Treatment recommendations address parking and staging issues related to an expected increase in visitation when the lighthouse is re-opened in 2013. These include a new parking area; adaptively reusing the woodshed foundation as a shade structure; new site furnishings; reducing mowing regimes; and removal of pines blocking views to the west.

Bodie Island Light Station Cultural Landscape Report Cape Hatteras National Seashore

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