The first three had been built in 1838, 1842, and 1846, in each case requiring replacement due to poor construction and/or encroaching lake waters.

[2][3][4][5][6] The 1857 lighthouse, a brick cylinder with attached house, was damaged in the Civil War and during tropical storms in 1888, 1890, 1915, 1926, and 1931.

The station was automated in 1941, and the keeper's house was removed in 1952, by which time the light was on an island instead of a peninsula.

The light was functionally replaced in 1987 by the U.S. Coast Guard, which established a skeleton tower on the south side of the pass entrance.

However, since February 2008 its lantern room – which was removed from the tower in 2002 for restoration – has been located at the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum, in Madisonville, Louisiana.