Haunted Lighthouse

The Pensacola Lighthouse taken on Sept 13, 2009. Photo by PR Mace

The current Pensacola Lighthouse was built in 1858 on the north side of Pensacola Bay. Standing proudly at 150ft tall, it sits on a 40 foot bluff located on the Pensacola Naval Air Station, placing its light at 190 feet above sea level. It was lit on January 1, 1859 and has been an active lighthouse ever since with one exception during the Civil War.

At the start of the Civil War, Pensacola was controlled by Confederate forces, while across the bay at Fort Pickens Union forces remained in command. Confederate authorities removed the lens from the lighthouse plunging the bay into darkness. In November 1861 the lighthouse tower was damaged by an artillery duel between the Union and Confederate forces.

In 1863 the lighthouse shone again using a fourth-order Fresnel lens and a new first-order lens replaced that one in 1869. The lighthouse gleamed brilliant white in the hot Florida sun during the raging Civil War but after the end of the conflict the upper two-thirds were painted black.

Electricity was introduced in 1939, eliminating the need to rewind the light rotation clockworks every 4 ½ hours and finally the tower was automated in 1965. The lighthouse tower and keepers cottage were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

While the history of the Pensacola Lighthouse is intriguing, it is the haunted history and current sighting of ghosts that keep people coming back again and again for tours.

The Pensacola Lighthouse has the honor of being one of the Ten Most Haunted Lighthouses as rated by the Travel Channel.

Blood stain on floor of Pensacola Lighthouse taken Oct 2008. Photo by PR Mace

The most well known spirit is the wife of the first keeper, Jeremiah Ingraham. In 1826, Ingraham and his new wife Michaela moved into the poorly constructed keeper’s cottage.

By all accounts Michaela was the perfect lighthouse keeper’s wife. She kept the cottage spotless and helped her husband with his duties. Some think she cared too much for the lighthouse and when her husband died in 1840 she was appointed the new keeper.

While official records state Ingraham took ill and died there were rumors he was murdered by his wife in a violent stabbing in the tower. Michaela remained the keeper from her husband’s death in 1840 until her own in 1855.