Old Baldy #2

Old Baldy #2
12.5 x 21"

 

This piece is based on a photo I took many summers ago on a family vacation to Bald Head Island. 

The brick structure is called “the oil house.”Here is information about it from the Old Baldy Foundation’s website:

“The federal government built the oil house to store kerosene when lighthouse fuel changed from the noncombustible whale oil to the highly explosive kerosene. The exact date of when this structure was built is unknown. Our educated guess is that it was built after 1879, as at that time, funds were allocated to the United States Lighthouse Service to build oil houses. When Old Baldy was deactivated in 1935, the Coast Guard repurposed this structure as a radio house in WWII. This was the last time this structure has an official use, except when they were repurposed in the 1970s as a restroom for lighthouse visitors.”

The lighthouse, built in 1817, is nicknamed “Old Baldy.” It has 108 stairs, and the base is 36 feet wide. The top is 14 feet wide. It is constructed of brick and painted with plaster on the exterior; maintenance over the years has given it a patchy look. The “lantern room,” the structure at the very top that once held the light, is offset from the center of the tower.