Photograph of Cape Florida Light — Photograph by Dr Zak at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Cape Florida Lighthouse

Built in 1825. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1947.

From the record

“The Cape Florida Light is a lighthouse on Cape Florida at the south end of Key Biscayne in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Constructed in 1825, it guided mariners off the Florida Reef, which starts near Key Biscayne and extends southward a few miles offshore of the Florida Keys.”
Wikipedia article Cape Florida Light, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 191 National Register listings published here for Miami-Dade County · listed in 1970 · category: Structure · built in 1825.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
Address. SE tip of Key Biscayne off U.S. 1, Cape Florida, 33149
When was it listed? September 1970
Category. structure
Census division. Key Biscayne
When was it built? 1825
National Register reference number. 70000180 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1947 to 1994

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 47 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Cape Florida Lighthouse, surveyed 1994

Topographic sheet covering Cape Florida Lighthouse, surveyed 1947

Fires near this property

4 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 4 fires within 5 miles of Cape Florida Lighthouse between 2006 and 2015, burning about 8 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Arson/incendiarism	3
Recreation and ceremony	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 June 2015	Recreation and ceremony	1.0 acres	Florida Forest Service	REEF FIRE
9 April 2006	Arson/incendiarism	4.0 acres	Florida Forest Service	BEACH FIRE
6 April 2007	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	Florida Forest Service	KEY RATS FIRE
14 April 2006	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Florida Forest Service	DUFF FIRE

Every fire recorded in Miami-Dade County

Maps showing this location

9 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1947 USGS Key Biscayne quadrangle1:24000
1949 USGS Key Biscayne quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1956 USGS Miami quadrangle1:250000 - 5 printings
1958 USGS Miami quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Key Biscayne quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1981 USGS Miami quadrangle1:100000
1988 USGS Key Biscayne quadrangle1:24000
1988 USGS Miami quadrangle1:250000
1994 USGS Key Biscayne quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
HALF MOON (shipwreck)	4.5 miles	2001
Virginia Key Beach Park	4.8 miles	2002
Miami Marine Stadium	5.4 miles	2018
Ransom School "Pagoda"	6.2 miles	1973
Stone Barge, Vizcaya	6.3 miles	1970
Fowey Rocks Light	6.3 miles	2011

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 70000180 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Miami-Dade County	All 191 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.