How Alexander Hamilton Shaped the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Legacy in OBX

By Nicole Letts
Jun. 24, 2024

If you’re like me, the name Alexander Hamilton may immediately cue a soundtrack. I am a huge fan of the eponymous musical, one of the top five highest-grossing musicals of all time. It ranks just below Phantom of the Opera, which holds the number three spot; now that Phantom has officially closed, we’ll see whether Lin Manuel Miranda’s work keeps moving upward. In any case, Hamilton reaches the 10th anniversary of its premiere in 2025.

Hamilton-related landmarks are easy to encounter in American cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, but they are less common across the South. Still, the Outer Banks holds a fascinating tie to the first secretary of the treasury, and fittingly, the Hamilton-OBX connection is linked to the region’s reputation as “The Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the first U.S. Congress under President George Washington established the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment in 1789. The organization placed 12 colonial-era lighthouses under the Treasury Department, which was led by Hamilton. Together with members of Congress, he became charged with overseeing the country’s lighthouses and navigation aids.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was authorized in 1794 while Hamilton was in leadership and was finished in 1803. The National Park Service says Hamilton urged that a lighthouse be placed along the Cape Hatteras banks. Why there? Hamilton had reportedly sailed past Diamond Shoals at 17 years old during his first trip from St. Croix to New York. The Thunderbolt, the vessel carrying Hamilton, is said to have caught fire and nearly gone down just a few miles from the cape. That event helped motivate the secretary’s push for a lighthouse in the area. Congress approved $44,000 in 1797 to build a lighthouse at Cape Hatteras. Over time, it became known as “Hamilton’s light.” In an ironic turn years later, another well-known figure from history disappeared at sea in the dangerous waters off the Outer Banks: Theodosia Burr, daughter of Hamilton’s rival Aaron Burr.

That version of the lighthouse eventually proved inadequate. Mariners often objected that the unpainted sandstone tower disappeared into the scenery. It was also too short, and its weak signal made it hard, or even impossible, to spot from the water. Fifty years after opening, the lighthouse received a 60-foot height increase and was painted red so it could be seen more easily. A Fresnel lens was added as well. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse would continue changing after that. Today, the tallest lighthouse in the United States is in the middle of a major restoration.

The source page includes a National Park Service statement about heavy public use at the site, noting Approximately 500,000 annual visitors to the Cape Hatteras Light Station and 1,500 daily lighthouse climbs between April and October. With visitation at that level, updating the lighthouse for 2024 and the years ahead became essential. Across the 18-month construction timeline, crews will repair deteriorated masonry, metal components, windows, marble flooring, and the lantern. A replica of a first-order Fresnel lens will be installed. Additional architectural elements, including missing pediments above the lighthouse windows and missing interior doors, will be restored too. The lighthouse will also receive fresh paint inside and out.

Guests who visit before the work is finished may see scaffolding surrounding the landmark structure until at least the summer of 2026, but historians, travelers, and residents alike expect the finished result to be worth the wait.

Other historic maritime places to visit while Cape Hatteras is under renovation

• Bodie Island Lighthouse: Built in 1872 on the Roanoke Sound, this 156 feet tall lighthouse allows summer visitors to climb its stairs.
• Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station: A historic Life Saving Station museum in Rodanthe, and the first staffed station in North Carolina.
• Pea Island Cookhouse Museum: This small but informative museum shares the history of the only lifesaving station in the U.S. to have been manned by an all-Black crew.
• Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum: Located on Hatteras, this museum commemorates the thousands of shipwrecks that occurred off the Atlantic banks.

Author

Nicole Letts is an Atlanta-based freelance journalist covering the modern American South. Her writing has appeared in major magazines and digital publications including AAA Alabama, Architectural Digest, BBC Travel, Fodor’s Travel, Garden & Gun, Good Grit, Southern Living and many more. She is also the author of Unique Eats and Eateries of Alabama. Away from writing, she can often be found stitching cheeky needlepoint canvases or browsing local antique shops for her online business, Grandmillennial Shop.