St. Augustine Lighthouse
Completed in 1874 on Anastasia Island, the St. Augustine Lighthouse rose 165 feet above the inlet, its black-and-white spiral tower built under construction superintendent Hezekiah Pittee, who had moved his family south from Maine. On July 10, 1873, his daughters and another worker's child were riding an iron supply rail car down to the water when a missing stop-board sent it plunging into Salt Run; three of the four girls drowned, with only young Carrie pulled out alive. Years later keeper Joseph Andreu fell to his death from the tower while painting it, and his wife Maria took over the light. Since the mid-twentieth century, relief keepers, craftsmen, and visitors have reported children's laughter drifting through the empty tower, shoelaces tied together on the staircase, and a girl in Victorian dress glimpsed in the keepers' house. The site's reputation drew the TAPS team for a 2006 Ghost Hunters investigation, cementing it among the most discussed haunted landmarks in Florida.
📍 100 Red Cox Drive, St. Augustine, FL 32080, St. Augustine, FL · Get directions