Bodie Island Light Station: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, National Park Service

Hitchcock, Susan

This cultural landscape inventory (CLI) has been adapted from "Bodie Island Light Station Cultural Landscape Report" (Susan Hitchcock, 2014). The following is from the Bodie Island Light Station Cultural Landscape Report (Hitchcock 2014). The light station is located on Bodie Island of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in Dare County, North Carolina. The station is set back about eight- tenths of a mile from the Atlantic Ocean and one hundred yards or so from the marshy Roanoke Sound to the west. Between the shoreline and the lighthouse is NC 12, connecting the communities of Nags Head, about 11 miles to the north, and Hatteras, about 50 miles to the south. The Bodie Island Light Station encompasses a striking combination of historic resources and a near pristine marine environment. The Bodie Island Light Station was listed on the National Register in 2003. It is significant in the areas of architecture, engineering, maritime history, and transportation. The centerpiece of the original 15-acre site is the 1872 brick tower and cast-iron lantern with an attached brick oil house/ workroom. The tower reflects a standardized design used for many first-order lighthouses, a standardization process begun by the U.S. Light-House Board after its establishment in 1852. The Bodie Island Lighthouse retains its 1871 Fresnel lens, and several contributing features remain in the historic station cultural landscape (Clifford 2002, 5-6, 17). The period of significance is from 1872 to 1956. It begins in 1872 with the construction of the light tower, oil house, double keepers’ quarters, and outbuildings, and ends in 1956 with the construction of the entrance road and parking area. The lighthouse, with its Fresnel lens in place, was a critical federal aid to national and international navigation from 1872 until 1953, when the light station was declared surplus by the USCG and acquired by the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Development at the site ended in 1956 when the NPS completed an access road and parking area, designed by the Eastern Office of Design and Construction. ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION SUMMARY AND CONDITION The Bodie Island Light Station Cultural Landscape maintains integrity of location, setting, feeling, workmanship, materials, and association. The station retains a nineteenth and early twentieth-century appearance with few modifications. Landscape characteristics such as buildings and structures, spatial organization, small-scale features, and circulation reflect the period of significance and largely remain intact. The cultural landscape is in ‘good’ condition.

Bodie Island Light Station: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, National Park Service

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