Toledo Harbor Lighthouse was established in 1904 in the western end of Lake Erie, marking the entrance to the Toledo Shipping Channel and the approach to the Port of Toledo on the Maumee River. The buff-colored brick tower has a steel framework, and the total height of the lighthouse is 85 feet. There’s also an attached one-story fog signal building. The building’s distinctive Romanesque architecture has led some to liken it to a gingerbread house. Resident keepers staffed the lighthouse until its 1966 automation.
Today the lighthouse is in the care of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization with more than 500 members. Under the provisions of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, ownership of the lighthouse was conveyed to the Society in 2007. Sandy Bihn is the founder and president of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society. She was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ohio Environmental Council in 2017.
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U.S. Lighthouse Society Historian Jeremy D’Entremont is the author of 24 books and hundreds of articles on lighthouses and maritime history. He is a past president of the American Lighthouse Foundation and founder of Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses, and he has lectured and narrated cruises throughout the Northeast and in other regions. He is also the producer and host of the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s weekly podcast, “Light Hearted.” He can be emailed at Jeremy@uslhs.org