New Basin Lighthouse Rescue

New Canal Light House Rescue

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Update

“We’re Making History"

We’ve dismantled the old lighthouse (see pictures below) and are storing its salvaged pieces to be used in the rebuild. We've begun repairs to the auxilliary building so that we can have a presence on the site. While we’ve raised an initial $200,000, we still need $600,000 more to completely restore the lighthouse. Help us make history and bring back this symbol of our rich maritime history and the resiliency of our communities.

The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation’s mission for the New Canal Lighthouse and the surrounding site is to open to the public an environmental and historical education/outreach center. The New Canal Lighthouse Education Center will offer programs for students, citizens in the Metro Area, visitors from the region, and tourists from out-of-state. The Lighthouse museum will include interactive displays depicting the history of the Lighthouse and the New Basin Canal, the ecology of Lake Pontchartrain, and the impacts of Katrina to the area.

Dismantling Begins

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Help Save Our Lighthouse

The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation signed a lease with the U.S Coast Guard to allow us to restore the historic New Canal Lighthouse at West End. WE NEED YOUR HELP!! Please send a check to LPBF, P.O. Box 6965, Metairie, La. 70009; or call in with your credit card to (504) 836-2215. Please put on the check, ATTN: Lighthouse. For more info on the Lighthouse go to www.saveourlake.org.

Please send donations to:
Attn: Save Our Lighthouse
Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundataion
P.O. Box 6965
Metairie, LA 70009
Make Checks Payable to: LPBF

HISTORIC TIMELINE: For the New Canal Light, established in 1838. Rebuilt in 1856. Rebuilt again in 1890.
March 3, 1837	An act of Congress authorizes $25,000 for beacons and a lighthouse to be established at the entrance of the harbor recently constructed on Lake Pontchartrain, at the New Basin Canal above New Orleans.
October 28, 1837	The New Orleans Canal and Banking Company, under president Isidore W. Justamond, transfers the lakefront property to the United States government for the construction of a lighthouse.
August 3, 1854	An act of Congress appropriates $6,000 for a new light house to replace the existing structure at the New Basin Canal. Years of expenditure: 1855-1857.
March 10, 1863	Light extinguished by order of General Sherman commanding the defenses of New Orleans during the Civil War
January 11, 1869	Work continues to repair the breakwater. A new foreman is appointed. “This station has been thoroughly repaired during the year. A substantial breakwater has been built on the east side of the structure, a slate roof substituted for the old one of shingles, which endangered the building from the sparks of passing steamers and the stove pipe.”
January 25, 1890	Old building to be auctioned, construction begins on a new lighthouse. “The keeper’s old dwelling was sold at public auction on January 29, 1890, and removed in a few days thereafter. The regular light was discontinued on February 5, 1890, and a lens lantern was displayed from a pole. A new structure, consisting of a square, two-story white frame dwelling with a slate roof, surmounted by a fifth order black lantern, was built on an iron pile foundation. The light, as heretofore, illuminates 270 degrees of the horizon, but the focal plane is now 49 feet above mean sea level. A new cistern resting on iron piles was put in and the store-house and out-building were repaired."
September 28-29, 1915	Devastating hurricane strikes New Orleans with a 12 foot storm surge and winds up to 130 mph. The old lighthouse bulkhead is destroyed.
January 15, 1966	Plans submitted for the construction of a new dock, bulkhead, and utility building
May 13, 1982	New insulated windows installed.
April 11, 1984	Cypress shutters and aluminum siding added for the entire exterior of the lighthouse.
December 30, 1985	The New Canal Light is placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
1999	USCG announces the light will be surplused and LPBF begins the process of acquisition
2002	The Coast Guard moves its Station New Orleans to Bucktown, abandoning the New Canal Light.
2005 2006 2007 2008	Hurricane Katrina destroys lighthouse. LPBF signs lease with U. S. Coast Guard to restore lighthouse. LPBF dismantles damaged structure and stores historic materials. Restoration phases begin.

History of the New Canal Lighthouse
Adapted from Lighthouses, Lightships, and the Gulf of Mexico, By David L. Cipra

The first New Canal Lighthouse was built in 1839 when the U.S. Congress appropriated money for a lighthouse at the entrance of the New Basin Canal at Lake Pontchartrain. The New Basin Canal extended along what is now West End Boulevard to an area just north of the Superdome. The lighthouse was basically a cypress tower with a lantern on top set on pilings about 1,000 feet offshore.

By 1843 many of the lower timbers on the lighthouse had begun to rot requiring a new lighthouse to be built. In 1855 a one-story, square wood dwelling was constructed on screwpiles with a lantern on top of the roof. In 1880 the Southern Yacht Club was relocated to New Orleans from Biloxi and the building blocked the light. The Lighthouse Board sold the old lighthouse for scrap and mounted a new, two-story building 16 feet higher on top of the original iron piles in 1890. By the early 1900s several land building projects occurred along the lakefront and included a peninsula on which the lighthouse was moved. Since that time some additions and renovations brought the lighthouse up to modern standards for housing of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). The USCG occupied the lighthouse from the 1960’s until 2001.

Before the USCG, lightkeepers were used to operate the light. Notable among these keepers were several women. Elizabeth Beattie was appointed in 1847 after her husband, the station’s first keeper, died. In 1850, Jane O’Driscol took over when her husband died. Mary Campbell held the post from 1870 until 1895 when Caroline Riddle took over. Maggie Norvell relieved Riddle in 1924. Caroline Riddle was commended for heroism for keeping the light lit during a hurricane. Maggie Norvell saved 200 people by rowing them ashore during a fire on an excursion boat.

Hurricane Katrina was not the only hurricane to severely damage the lighthouse. In September of 1915 a hurricane with winds up to 130 miles per hour heavily damaged the station. Hurricane damage in 1926 resulted in the light being raised onto concrete piers.

The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) is committed to bringing the New Canal Lighthouse back to life after Hurricane Katrina. Since 2001, LPBF has actively sought ownership of the lighthouse once the USCG moved into their new station in Bucktown. Before Katrina, LPBF was participating in the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Program to turn the lighthouse into an education center for the public featuring exhibits about the history of the light and the ecology of the Pontchartrain Basin. It is the intention of LPBF to restore the lighthouse from hurricane damage and continue the work to open it as a public education facility.