The first light was finished in 1848 with nine lamps in 21 inches (530 mm) reflectors about 55 feet (17 m) above the base.

[4] A new, iron skeleton tower with a 3rd order Fresnel lens (focal plane 102 feet (31 m)) was erected in its place in 1895.

After a barge carrying fertilizer ran aground, it was determined that the Coast Guard had been negligent in maintaining the proper operation of the light.

Erosion eventually left the tower standing alone in the water, with the last auxiliary building, a keeper's house, destroyed by Hurricane Camille in 1969.

The tower was utterly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, so that a visit by a research vessel the following spring found no trace of it.