You are here

Michigan » The Lower Peninsula » Traverse Bay Region » Leelanau County » Grand Traverse Lighthouse

Grand Traverse Lighthouse

-A A +A
1858; 1899 fog signal building. 15390 N. Lighthouse Point Rd., 7.6 miles northeast of Northport
  • (Photograph by Kathryn Bishop Eckert)
  • (Photograph by Kathryn Bishop Eckert)

This lighthouse marks the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula and the entrance into Grand Traverse Bay. It is the second structure built on the site to guide ships in the Manitou Passage. The light tower, surmounted by a nine-sided, cast-iron lantern, projects from the gable roof of the brick, two-story keeper's dwelling. A climb to the top permits breathtaking views across the bay as far as Charlevoix. The imaginative beach-stone sculpture in the yard around the lighthouse says something about the lonely life of a Great Lakes lighthouse keeper. In 1972 the U.S. Coast Guard erected a steel skeletal structure with an automatic light and abandoned this lighthouse. Today the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Foundation operates the lighthouse as a museum. The wildlife corridor that connects Northport Bay to Cathead Bay and Cathead Point to the lighthouse and natural areas is a haven for migratory birds.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Kathryn Bishop Eckert
×

Data

Citation

Kathryn Bishop Eckert, "Grand Traverse Lighthouse", [Northport, Michigan], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-LU11.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Michigan

Buildings of Michigan, Kathryn Bishop Eckert. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 436-437.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,