Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Pioneer Homestead, Florida

The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse has a pioneer home which dates from 1892 and was built by George Tindall on the banks of the Loxahatchee River. The home was moved in the twentieth century to enhance the museum.

Tindall Pioneer Homestead

The ground floor of the house is divided by a hallway. On one side is a bedroom and a laundry room. The bedroom was the master bedroom for George and his wife. The children slept upstairs in the loft room, which was much hotter than the downstairs. Poor kids!

Bedroom

Laundry room

Across the hall is the family room where they would spend the better part of the day. Since we visited over the Christmas holidays, it was decorated appropriately.

Festive Family Room

A breezeway connects the main part of the house with the kitchen. Kitchens were kept in a separate building for two reasons. First, the wood-burning stove (which could also burn coal) was on all day from breakfast to dinnertime which made the kitchen very hot. The breezeway kept that heat from the rest of the house. Second, kitchen fires were considered almost inevitable so separate buildings meant repairing only one building, not the whole homestead. This kitchen includes the dining table.

Dining table with baby's chair

J by the stove

Water containers

Crank-style butter churn

Outside the home is an authentic Chickee. The chickee is the typical house built by the Seminoles. The palmetto thatch roof and cypress log frame have no walls allowing air to circulate freely. Most chickees have a platform to keep people off potentially wet ground.

Chickee

Also outside was an unidentified bell that the web site calls the "100-year old Pennock Plantation Bell."

Please add a plaque!

After our visit was done, we went to the Tequesta Brewing Company for lunch. I tried their Gnarly Barley beer which was enjoyable.

Two pacifiers

Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, Florida

The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse was designed by then-Lieutenant George Meade (who later led the victorious Union forces in the Battle of Gettysburg as a general) as part of the coastal development of Florida. The light began service in July of 1860 but during the American Civil War it was out (and its mechanisms hidden by the Confederates to prevent their capture). The light was relit in June of 1866 and has provided continuous service since.

Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse

We had a short walk from the museum building to the base of the lighthouse. Our guide stopped in a grove of ficus trees and told us details about the lighthouse before we ascended.

Ficus

A short climb to a longer climb

Right next to the lighthouse is the original museum that was previously the keeper's house.

Smaller, older museum building

The view of the surrounding area from the base of the lighthouse was not as impressive as the view from above.

View from the base

Entering the lighthouse, we discovered a 100-gallon lard oil butt used to store the original fuel for the lighthouse. The fuel was switched to kerosene in 1886 and to electricity in 1928.

Narrow entrance

100-gallon butt

The stairs up the 108-foot height were the typically terrifying spiral. J was unfazed by going up or down, unlike his parents.

Stairs viewed from below

Hole in the stairs

J as casual as can be

The Fresnel lens at the top is typical for lighthouses. The docent outside explained how it works.

Inside the lens

The views are spectacular from the small walkway just below the lens on the outside of the lighthouse.

Intracoastal waterway and Jupiter Inlet

The inlet

The drawbridge opening

The closed drawbridge (from one of the lower windows)

Ritzy part of Jupiter

After coming down, our guide led us to a plantation house that was moved to the grounds. That will be the next blog post!

Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Museum, Florida

The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse has a museum presenting the history of the area through the early 1900s. The building was originally a World War II naval building for housing married men. The men worked at Station J, a navigational beacon and communications relay station. The station's most important work was spotting German submarines that were harassing the Florida coast. The station was closed in 1945 and the buildings were given to the Coast Guard in the 1960s. In 2004, the land and the lighthouse were transferred to the town of Jupiter.

Jupiter Lighthouse Museum

The museum includes displays of Native American art from both before and after the discovery of America.

Pre-settlement art

Pottery

Metal work using European metals (click to enlarge)

The cannon below was discovered in 1987 by a lifeguard only 200 yards from shore. It's thought to be from the Spanish messenger ship San Miguel Arcangelo which sank in December 1659.

J and the cannon

A copper ingot also from the Spanish ship

Religious items

Displays on the lighthouse give a glimpse into the life of the families who kept the light going.

Iron bedstead and quilt

Nautical instruments

1900s-era gun

Lighthouse keeper's equipment

Just across from the museum is a drawbridge that went up several times while we were there.

Not so large boat passing through