Piece of history lost 100 years ago along NC’s Outer Banks to be recreated, park says

A unique piece of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse with ties to the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant is set to return 100 years after it vanished, according to the National Park Service.

The octagonal fence of stone and iron that once surrounded the nation’s tallest brick lighthouse is being restored, and will include pieces of the original fence found buried on Hatteras Island, officials said.

Those pieces date to 1870, and research has revealed the fence ties to multiple key buildings in the nation’s capital — though it is not clear why.

“The same style of fence was used on the east, south, and west sides of the White House complex in 1871-1872 during the Grant administration,” Mike Barber, a spokesman for Cape Hatteras National Seashore, told McClatchy News in an email.

“Similar fencing surrounds the U.S. Treasury Building, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and part of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.”

The fence is being recreated as part of a $19.2 million project to restore the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse back to its appearance in the 1870s.

Relentless corrosion from salt water forced the tower to be modernized through the years, including replacement of the fence in the 1920s, historians say.

“The fence is a character-defining feature that we want to include in the historic restoration project. Construction began in November 1870, and it stood for about 50 years,” Barber said.

“It was replaced because the cast iron fence had deteriorated from exposure to the marine environment. Original pieces were recovered during excavations in 1985 and 1998.”

It is unclear how the same style of fence used in Washington, D.C., turned up 330 miles south on a remote North Carolina barrier island.

Allen Metals Architects was picked to create a replica, using historical images as a guide. (Some of those photos were provided by the Outer Banks Lighthouse Society, Barber said.)

The replica will incorporate 784 fence pickets, 784 fence picket finials, and 49 post finials.

Another company, Stone & Lime, is trying to salvage as much granite from the original site “as is useful” and will replicate what it can’t salvage, the park service says.

The project is expected to take 2,000 hours of work.

Curiously, the biggest challenge has been getting the accurate finial patterns from historic research, photos and drawings, Barber said.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was famously moved in 1999, as part of a controversial effort to keep it from falling into the ocean due to erosion. It sits today 2,900 feet from its original location, the National Park Service says.

This story was originally published July 1, 2024 at 9:40 AM with the headline "Piece of history lost 100 years ago along NC’s Outer Banks to be recreated, park says."