The Texas Galveston Lighthouse was a cornerstone of the community of Galveston, Texas. More colloquially known as the “Galveston Jetty Lighthouse”, the lighthouse was used to mark the jetties that were built during the 1870s. The Texas Galveston Lighthouse itself was finished in 1917, and stood as a beacon to warn incoming sailors about the danger posed by the jetties.
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Since the lighthouse was in an isolated and dangerous location at the end of a jetty, only the lighthouse keepers were allowed to be there at any time. Occasionally their families were allowed to visit, but even that was rare, since the structure was inherently not safe.
By 1972, the introduction of commercial electricity to the lighthouse freed the keepers from needing to constantly tend the lighthouse, and by the early 1980s, with the introduction of modern floodlights, the old lighthouse became obsolete, and was deactivated. Certain parts of the Texas Galveston lighthouse were donated to different museums, but the structure itself stood tall until 2000, when it was destroyed in a brutal storm. All that remains today are the ruins of the old structure, but many pieces of it can be found in and around the museums of Galveston.
