Press release

The Key West Lighthouse and Keepers Quarters Museum
celebrated “Lighthouse Day in Florida”

by Michael Haskins

Gov. Jeb Bush proclaimed Sept. 16 as official “Lighthouse Day in Florida.” The Key West Lighthouse Museum and Keepers Quarters Museum celebrated the proclamation by giving a fifty-percent discount on the $10 admission to Florida residents with identification. The museum is located at 938 Whitehead St.
Visitors to the many exhibits at the Custom House, 281 Front St., on Sept. 16, received a free pass to the Lighthouse Museum, a short walk down Whitehead Street. Residents and visitors alike took advantage of this special offer and enjoyed two of Key West’s most popular historic museums.
Special activities at the Key West Lighthouse were set from 2-4 p.m. on Sept. 16. Monroe County Mayor Charles “Sonny” McCoy presided at the ribbon-cutting opening of a new exhibit dedicated to Barbara Mabrity and Mary Bethel, two women who continued as lighthouse keepers after their husbands died.
In August of 1861, all the lighthouses along the coast of Florida were dark expect the Key West lighthouse, under the control of Barbara Mabrity, a quiet supporter of the Confederacy. In 1864, the 82-year-old lighthouse keeper faced accusations of Confederate sympathies and was asked to retire. Mabrity refused and was removed from her position.
William Bethel, a grandchild of Mabrity, was named lighthouse keeper in 1889 and his wife, Mary, served as assistant keeper from 1891-1908, when her husband died. She became the lighthouse keeper and remained on the job until she retired in 1913.
The children’s activity rooms at the lighthouse now exhibit pinhole photography and watercolor paintings from the children’s summer class sponsored by the Key West Art and Historical Society. Additionally, one room is devoted to a Barbara Mabrity puppet show that was written, produced and performed by the children The well-manicured lawns and grounds of the lighthouse are active each summer with classes for school aged children and are available for rental for meetings and parties.
The Key West Lighthouse is 86-feet tall and was built 1894, as an extension to the 46-foot lighthouse built in 1847. Eighty-eight iron steps take visitors to the observation deck and a spectacular view of Key West neighborhoods.
Also on display is the multifaceted “first-order” Fresnel lens large enough to walk into. More than 15 oil lamps with 15-inch reflectors were original used for illumination. Electricity came to the lighthouse in 1927.
In 1998, the lighthouse was nominated for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Landmark, which puts it in the same category as the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The new exhibition focusing on the Mabrity and Bethel was made possible in part by the support of the East Hill Foundation and Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources.

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