Ocracoke Light Station Cultural Landscape Report, Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Hitchcock, Susan

The Ocracoke Light Station is located on Ocracoke Island of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore in Hyde County, North Carolina. The approximate two-acre site is located on the southwest end of the seventeen-mile-long Ocracoke Island, which extends southwest from Hatteras Inlet to Ocracoke Inlet between Hatteras and Portsmouth Islands. The Ocracoke Light Station, located on National Park Service (NPS) property, is surrounded by the village of Ocracoke, the southernmost community associated with the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The centerpiece of the original two-acre site is the 1823 brick tower and cast-iron lantern, the oldest North Carolina lighthouse still in continuous service and the second oldest lighthouse in the United States in continuous service. The tower and the fourth-order Fresnel lens reflect a standardized design used for many early lighthouses built by the Department of the Treasury. 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 light station in 1823 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 Ocracoke Light Station’s historic and contemporary landscape characteristics, such as changes in spatial organization, circulation, and vegetation. Integrity of location, setting, materials, and workmanship remain high. Modern intrusions have affected integrity of feeling and association. Nonetheless, 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 rehabilitation. Because rehabilitation is defined as the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property, this approach allows for protection of the site’s historic character and resources while carefully addressing the need for limited enhancement of interpretive opportunities and circulation routes, sustainability, and the improvement of visitor amenities. As part of rehabilitation treatment, stabilization, protection, and preservation of historic and natural resources are assumed even when new uses are accommodated.

Ocracoke Light Station Cultural Landscape Report, Cape Hatteras National Seashore

Series

Other versions