Landmark · St. Simons Island, GA
St. Simons Island Lighthouse
Rebuilt in 1872 after Confederate troops dynamited the original tabby tower, the 104-foot St. Simons Island Lighthouse has guided ships into St. Simons Sound for over a century and a half. On a Sunday morning in March 1880, head keeper Frederick Osborne was shot dead on the grounds by his assistant John Stevens after a quarrel over insults traded between their households; Stevens was tried and acquitted, leaving Osborne's service cut violently short. Keepers who followed, including Carl Svendsen and his wife during their long tenure beginning in 1907, repeatedly heard heavy, deliberate footfalls climbing the iron spiral staircase at night, sounds that sent their dog Jink into a frenzy. Visitors and staff still report the same disembodied tread on the 129-step stair, as though Osborne never quite finished his last climb to tend the light.
📍 101 12th Street, St. Simons Island, GA 31522, St. Simons Island, GA · Get directions