The City of Fernandina Beach offers a tour of the Amelia Island Lighthouse every first and third Wednesday of each month. This is one of the most historic landmarks on Amelia Island. St. Augustine, Florida, may claim to be the oldest “continuously-occupied city” in the United States, but Fernandina Beach has bragging rights to claim the oldest lighthouse in the state.
The fee for this tour is $5.00 per adult and $3.00 for any child under 12 years old. There is a minimum participation of 10 people and a maximum of 25 for each tour. The bus leaves the Atlantic Recreation Center (2500 Atlantic Avenue) promptly at 10:00am on the day of the tour. Call 904-277-7350 for more information.
Special Note: The tour does not allow anyone to the top of the lighthouse.
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Why is there a restriction of going all the way to the top?
I'm confused. In a previous article it was stated that …was originally built in 1820 on Cumberland Island, Georgia. In 1838, the tower was dismantled and reassembled on Amelia Island… So it means that the lighthouse could not have been the oldest. Or do you mean there was a structure before the current lighthouse functioning as a lighthouse?
From what I have read, the Amelia Island lighthouse is the oldest one in Florida. Most of them have been demolished or destroyed by weather and had to be rebuilt. Such as the one in St. Augustine, Florida, when by 1870, the sea was encroaching upon the coquina lighthouse and it was in danger of collapse. Construction began in 1871 on their new lighthouse. It was lit on October 15, 1874 and four years later the old coquina keeperís house fell into the ocean. The tower collapsed in a storm two years later.
I'm not sure, but I do know that one of the reasons the tours are limited is because the lighthouse is surrounded by homes in a quiet, residential neighborhood.