Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse tours stopped over safety concerns

Public tours of the Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse off Cape Henlopen, Del., have been halted indefinitely after a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report raised safety concerns about accessing the site and found needed repair costs to be near or more than $100 million.

Built in 1926, the lighthouse sits offshore at the south end of the 8,000-foot-long Harbor of Refuge breakwater. The breakwater reduces the energy of waves hitting the Lewes, Del., shoreline, decreasing their intensity, and provides safe harbor for ships during storms. 

In 1901, when construction of the breakwater was completed, the depth of the water at its south end was 50 feet. Over time, tidal currents developed a scour hole at that end of the breakwater.

In 2022, the Army Corps of Engineers recorded depths of over 130 feet at the scour hole, prompting it to investigate options to repair the breakwater and the related costs.

“As the distance between Cape Henlopen and the southern end of the breakwater has decreased due to Cape Henlopen sand growth, it increases the velocities of currents in that area, which is the likely cause of the deep scour hole,” Steve Rochette, a public affairs officer for the Army Corps, wrote in an email. 

For the last 18 years, the Delaware River & Bay Lighthouse Foundation, a nonprofit that owns and maintains the lighthouse, has restored its interior and exterior and offered tours one Saturday each month during the summer.

“They also noted in the report that the breakwater is actually in excellent condition for the reason it was built, to reduce wave energy and provide a safe harbor,” said Rick Ziegler, president of the foundation. “In a roundabout way it told us that the lighthouse is really a secondary consideration.”

The Army Corps has closed the breakwater to visitors, with the exception of conducting maintenance, and the lighthouse foundation believes the cost of breakwater repairs may be prohibitive to resuming public tours. 

The cost estimates of the two repair options detailed in the Army Corps report are $91 million and $123 million. Ziegler was not optimistic that the project would get the required funding in the near future.

“The Army Corps is very busy,” Ziegler said. “They have to plan out repairs many years in advance and secure funding. If they can get the funding, it’s probably going to be at least six or seven years.”

Repair plans detailed in the report involve replacing the damaged protective capstone around the base of the lighthouse at water level, and repairing the breakwater below the water by strengthening the existing structure with stone fill. 

The Army Corps plans to install a monitor on the lighthouse to detect any movement in the structure. For the time being, the lighthouse foundation continues to maintain the lighthouse.

“We restarted our monthly maintenance trips to the light this year,” Ziegler said. “We did not go out at all last year, at the request of the Army Corps of Engineers.”

The lighthouse is painted annually, and other repairs are carried out as problems arise. This past year, one of the exterior doors of the lighthouse came off its hinges and had to be welded back into place.

“It’s a very challenging environment,” Ziegler said. “It’s right where the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean meet. There’s some very strong currents there and whenever hurricanes come through it really beats the exterior of the lighthouse.”

Caring for an offshore lighthouse presents unique challenges. The lighthouse can only be accessed by boat. The foundation’s biggest expense is paying for transportation, which costs about $1,500 round trip to access the site.

“You can’t just drive up to it with paint buckets, unfortunately,” Ziegler said.

The 76-foot tall Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse and Breakwater are both on the National Register of Historic Places. The lighthouse still functions as an aid to navigation, and a new LED beacon was installed in October 2022.

The U.S. Coast Guard maintains the beacon, fog signal, solar panels and batteries, and visits the light about twice a year. It was manned until 1973, when it was automated. Ziegler said the last Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse keeper, Bill Harris, often accompanied tours of the lighthouse to talk about his experience there.

With the safety restrictions currently in place, the closest the public can get to the structure are sunset cruises still offered by the foundation.