After driving to the St. Clement's Island Museum, one may take a water taxi on weekends and walk the grounds.

Congress appropriated $3,500 for the construction of a lighthouse on the island in 1848; John Donahoo was awarded the contract, which cost $4,535.

He designed an integral lighthouse, a two-story brick keeper's dwelling with a tower through its center, which sat on a 2-acre (0.81 ha) plot at the southern tip of the island.

The United States Navy purchased the island in 1919 and razed most structures on it, leaving only the lighthouse and building piers and a landing strip.

The light was automated in 1932 and left unattended, gradually decaying over the next twenty years.