It was built on top of a 48-foot Native American shell mound. Military after the Second Seminole Indian War, according to the Loxahatchee River Historical Society. government in the 1850s, sits on land that was secured by the U.S. The Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, originally commissioned by the U.S. Kruspe considers himself a student of history, and the structure’s colorful past drew him to Jupiter in 1994. “That’s the reason that the whole lighthouse is there - to get that thing to the elevation it needs to be at and be the aid to navigation that has saved so many lives in the Florida Straits in the last 150 years.” “I love taking care of the optic,” he said. His favorite part of the job is taking care of the structure’s lens. He works five to six days a week and sometimes seven if the light goes dark, as it does on occasion. Steve Kruspe spends more time than just about anybody at the lighthouse in his role as the structure’s operations chief and lighthouse keeper.Ī Marine Corps veteran who volunteered at the lighthouse for 16 years before being hired as lighthouse keeper in 2010, Kruspe, 60, is responsible for daily maintenance of the structure, including monitoring, inspecting, cleanliness and upkeep. Its optic is a first-order Fresnel lens, manufactured in Paris and thought to be the oldest existing first order Fresnel lens in Florida, according to the Loxahatchee River Historical Society. The 153-year-old structure, first lit on July 10, 1860, features brick, double masonry walls, 105 cast-iron stairs spiraling counterclockwise and a central iron column with three landings. At 108 feet tall, the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse rises majestically above the Jupiter shoreline.
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