Built in 1939. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1991. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Huron Harbor Light is a lighthouse in Huron, Ohio on Lake Erie, on the west pier of the Huron Harbor.”
Wikipedia article Huron Harbor Light, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 175 National Register listings in Erie County · listed in 1991 · category: Structure · built in 1939 · one of 2 National Historic Landmarks in Erie County.
National Register reference number.91000971- 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.
The Township of Huron is irregular in form on account of its bordering on Lake Erie. The greatest length is from east to west, and the greatest width is at the western side where it extends from Milan Township on the south across part of Sandusky Bay and the base of Cedar Point to Lake Erie, whose turbulent and shallow waters wash its whole northern side, and at various points on the shores have dug away many acres of once valuable farming land. The Huron River, which enters the township from Milan and flows diagonally across the eastern portion, emptying into the lake at the eastern side of the Town of Huron, is a deep stream, with rather abrupt, though not high banks.
The river is navigable for quite large vessels for several miles, and for small boats for a much greater distance. Its mouth forms one of the best harbors on the south shore of Lake Erie, which made Huron an important point and caused it to be, probably, the first town settled in the Firelands. Early travelers coming up the lake in small boats found the Huron River an easy means of penetrating into the back country, and in the earlier times, explorers may have portaged across to the tributaries of the Ohio and found their way to the Mississippi.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 2,844 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Huron Harbor Light between 1860 and
1975: 1,353 Animalia, 1,194 Plantae, 264 Fungi, 26 Chromista, 7 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by ?, A. Dowdy, A. F. Satterthwait and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
5 workings within 5 miles of Huron Harbor Light: 2 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Calcium. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Huron, the town this property stands in, in 28 storm reports between 1996 and 2023: 11 thunderstorm wind, 10 hail, 3 lightning, 2 flash flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Widespread flooding across western and central Erie County, including the cities of Sandusky and Huron, Margaretta Township, Perkins Township, Oxford Township, and Huron Township. Officials estimated hundreds of homes impacted by basement flooding per local media reports. Widespread road closures due to flooding. Some of the roads impacted by flooding include US-6 from the Sandusky city limits to OH-269, Homegardner Road between OH-269 and Bardshar Road, Campbell Street at Pipe Creek, Old Railroad Road at Mills Creek, Bogart Road at Pipe Creek and at Patten Tract Road, Patten Tract Road at Fox Road and Mason Road, Ransom Road at Wood Road, and Hull Avenue at Lawrence Avenue. Huron High School damaged by flooding. Animal shelter needed evacuated due to flooding. Several residents requiring evacuation near Pipe Creek near Columbus Avenue. Cars stranded in underpass on Columbus Avenue. Apartment complex flooded out in the southeast portion of the city of Sandusky. Radar estimated 3 to 4.75 inches of rainfall in a three hour period, with the highest amount along the Lake Erie shoreline from Sandusky to Huron.
Thunderstorm downburst winds estimated to be at least 60 mph caused damage at a mobile home park in Huron. Several mobile homes were damaged and at least one car port was leveled. Several utility poles and trees in the area were also toppled.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
3,494 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Statement of significance
Applicable National Register Criteria Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Period of Significance Cyltyral Affiliation Architect/ Builder C. A. Park and G. B.
Skinner dealt Huron a severe blow, but the city's fortunes rebounded when the Working drawings, prepared in 1934 by the Office of Superintendent of Lighthouses, Eleventh District, Detroit, Michigan, were approved by X See continuation sheet Transportation 1935-36 Architecture Conneaut Harbor West Breakwater Light on Lake Erie--for which a separate National Register nomination has been prepared--and similar to Gravelly Washington Breakwater Light on Lake Michigan, and Keweenaw Waterway Upper Entrance Light on Lake Superior.)With its Streamline-Moderne styling and Significant Person latter structure, a pyramidal iron skeleton tower clad with wood and metal, Significant Dates designed in 1934, the Huron Harbor Light is one of six similar stations stood on the old west pierhead at the foot of North Main skeleton towers that now dot the nation's coastlines.
trend of the period and marked the end of traditional lighthouse design. Wheeling &Lake Erie Railroad arrived in Huron via Norwalk in 1882,making light was rebuilt or renovated in 1857 and again in 1900 and 1907; the Xlocally Criteria Considerations (Exceptions). State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above. efficient steel skin, the Huron Harbor Light mirrored the architectural Such towers could be built cheaply from a standard plan, operated remotely from shore, and required minimal maintenance. rugged, all-steel tower similar to that built at Huron and, eventually, at Chief Engineer" and "G. B. Skinner, Arch.[itectural] Str.
[uctures] Dept." Certitying official has considered the significance of this property in relation to other properties: Shoal Light on Lake Huron, Indiana Harbor East Breakwater Light and Port statewide The harbor nationally Huron an important transshipment point for coal and iron ore.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 91000971, 28 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
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.
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.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
Block
