St. Augustine Lighthouse
The current 165-foot tower rose in 1874 after its 1824 predecessor succumbed to erosion. Its documented deaths include keeper Joseph Andreu’s 1859 fall and the 1873 drowning of keeper Hezekiah Pittee’s children during construction—tragedies the museum’s Dark of the Moon tours weave into its reported-activity lore.
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Is St. Augustine Lighthouse haunted?
The record holds 4 claims, 3 legends, 3 named entities — filed as reported, not verified. The heaviest filing is classed documented legend. The archive documents the claim; it takes no position on the ghost.
The record — long form
On July 10, 1873, with forty-two feet of a planned 165-foot tower standing on Anastasia Island, four girls climbed into a railway supply cart and rode it down the track toward Salt Run — a pastime the construction superintendent's children had turned into a Victorian roller coaster. The wooden board that stopped the cart at the water's edge was not in place. The cart flipped into the run and trapped them underneath. Three daughters of superintendent Hezekiah Pittee — Mary, fifteen; Eliza, thirteen; Carrie, four — drowned along with a ten-year-old friend whose name the records mostly failed to keep. A worker named Dan Sessions saw it happen and ran for them; he was too late.
The tower they were building went up anyway. On October 15, 1874, a first-order Fresnel lens made in Paris sent its first light over the inlet, and the black-and-white spiral shaft St. Augustine knows today has been working ever since. It replaced a light station older than Florida itself: a converted Spanish watchtower, lit by the U.S. government in May 1824 as the territory's first lighthouse, which the sea took in 1880.
The documented record
The light station's casualty list predates the present tower. In 1859, keeper Joseph Andreu fell sixty feet to his death when scaffolding gave way while he whitewashed the old tower; his wife, Maria Mestre de los Dolores Andreu, took over the lamps and is counted as the first Hispanic-American woman to serve in the Coast Guard's line of lightkeepers. During the Civil War the lens was removed and hidden to keep it from Union shipping; the light returned on June 1, 1867.
Congress funded the replacement tower in installments — $60,000 in 1871, $20,000 in 1872, $25,000 in 1873 — and the design came from Paul J. Pelz of the Lighthouse Board, later a co-architect of the Library of Congress. The keeper's quarters followed in 1876. Some 200,000 visitors now climb the tower's 219 steps each year, and the station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
What witnesses file
The site's most-reported phenomena are attached to the two documented deaths. Staff and tour guests describe children's laughter and running footsteps in the tower and the keeper's house, attributed to the Pittee girls. On the stairs and in the workrooms, guides report a figure in keeper's dress — sometimes called the Man in Blue — announced, several accounts insist, by the smell of cigar smoke before anyone is seen.
The museum runs the reports openly rather than at arm's length: the 'Dark of the Moon' ghost tour is a flagship program, and paranormal television crews, including Ghost Hunters, have filmed in the tower. The claims are logged as claims. What is verifiable is that the light still functions, the spiral is still painted, and the accident report from 1873 is still legible.
What remains
The physical record is unusually complete for a haunted site: the tower, the 1876 keeper's house, the Fresnel lens still turning in the lantern room, and the foundation of the first tower, which the shoreline gave back to view after Hurricane Matthew in 2016. The girls' cart and rail are gone; the names of three of the four victims are carved in the memorial, the fourth recorded mostly as 'a young African-American girl.' Whether the laughter visitors report is theirs is a question the record does not answer. That four children died building the tower is a question it settled long ago.
The St. Augustine Light Station is a privately maintained aid to navigation and an active, working lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida. The current lighthouse stands at the north end of Anastasia Island and was built between 1871 and 1874. The tower is the second lighthouse tower in St. Augustine, the first being lit officially by the American territorial government in May 1824 as Florida's first lighthouse. However, both the Spanish and the British governments operated a major aid to navigation here including a series of wooden watch towers and beacons dating from 1565.
St. Augustine LightThe long record
- 1859Accident
Andreu’s fall
- 1873Accident
Pittee children drown
- 1874Built
Lighthouse constructed
- 1874History
The present tower was completed in 1874; the earlier 1824 tower collapsed into the sea in 1880. The vessel's documented service record is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The detail is preserved in 'St. Augustine Light'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
The record of claims
The St. Augustine Lighthouse museum presents its ghost stories and investigation experiences openly — the 'Dark of the Moon' ghost tour is a flagship program. The haunting claims rest on documented deaths: keeper Andreu's 1859 fall and the Pittee children's 1873 drowning. The deaths are documented; the ghosts are lore.
Tour accounts at the St. Augustine Lighthouse attribute children's laughter and running footsteps in the tower and grounds to the Pittee girls — the keeper's children who drowned in the 1873 construction accident. The laughter is the site's most-reported phenomenon, heard most often in the keeper's house.
A figure in keeper's dress — sometimes called the Man in Blue — is reported on the St. Augustine lighthouse stairs: the cigar-smelling presence staff associate with a former keeper still making his rounds. The tower's 219 steps are where most of the reports concentrate. The stairs keep his rounds. The gallery keeps its watcher.
The Pittee girls are reportedly heard at the St. Augustine light — children's laughter and running footsteps in the tower and keeper's house, attributed to the keeper's daughters who drowned in the 1873 construction accident. Their documented deaths make them the site's most credible ghosts, and its most heartbreaking.
The St. Augustine Lighthouse museum presents its ghost stories and investigation experiences openly — the 'Dark of the Moon' ghost tour is a flagship program. The haunting claims rest on documented deaths: keeper Andreu's 1859 fall and the Pittee children's 1873 drowning. The tower climb ends where the reports begin.
A figure in keeper's dress — sometimes called the Man in Blue — is reported on the St. Augustine lighthouse stairs: the cigar-smelling presence staff associate with a former keeper still making his rounds. The tower's 219 steps are where most of the reports concentrate. The stairs are where most reports concentrate.
Two accounts on file
The museum presents lighthouse ghost stories and investigation experiences.
1874 beacon with documented keeper-era deaths and a long ghost-tour record.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Discovery record. Coordinates, earliest legend source, independent history and current visitor rules require further verification.
Historical enrichment pass from encyclopedia/official records; paranormal claims remain source-attributed reports, not verified events.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
The museum presents lighthouse ghost stories and investigation experiences.
The 1874 black-and-white tower—the keeper’s daughters still play.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
The current 165-foot tower rose in 1874 after its 1824 predecessor succumbed to erosion. Its documented deaths include keeper Joseph Andreu’s 1859 fall and the 1873 drowning of keeper Hezekiah Pittee’s children during construction—tragedies the museum’s Dark of the Moon tours weave into its reported-activity lore.
The St. Augustine Lighthouse is the 1874 Anastasia Island tower—the striped lighthouse where the Pittee daughters drowned in 1873 and are reportedly still heard. Its lore is among Florida’s most documented.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
HISTORIC_SITE
ACTIVE
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Discovery record. Coordinates, earliest legend source, independent history and current visitor rules require further verification.
FL batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Discovery record. Coordinates, earliest legend source, independent history and current visitor rules require further verification.
Media-appearance enrichment; VERIFY task auto-queued.
Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite.
Alleged entities
The Pittee children are the St. Augustine Lighthouse's named ghosts — the keeper's daughters who drowned in the 1873 construction accident when their cart rolled into the basin. Tour accounts attribute children's laughter and running footsteps in the tower and grounds to them; the deaths themselves are documented.
The 'Man in Blue' is the St. Augustine Lighthouse's keeper-figure — the cigar-smelling presence in keeper's dress reported on the tower's 219 steps, attributed to a former keeper still making his rounds. He's the adult counterweight to the Pittee children's laughter: the tower's working ghost. The report keeps its place in the record.
The Pittee daughters — the keeper's children who drowned at the lighthouse in 1873 — are reportedly heard at the light: laughter, running footsteps, a ball bouncing in the keeper's house. Their documented deaths make them the site's most credible ghosts, and its most heartbreaking. The reports keep the address on the map.
Documented history
The present tower was completed in 1874; the earlier 1824 tower collapsed into the sea in 1880. The vessel's documented service record is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The detail is preserved in 'St. Augustine Light'. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from.
Keeper Joseph Andreu fell to his death while painting the first tower in 1859; keeper Hezekiah Pittee’s children drowned in a construction-cart accident in 1873. A vessel with a documented working life gives the file real substance underneath the maritime lore. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'St. Augustine Light' documents the entry. The date is part of the site's documented spine.
Verified historyWikipediaBuilt 1874; the 1873 drownings are documented. The vessel's documented service record is the record the rest of the file stands on. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. 'St. Augustine Light' documents the entry. It anchors the timeline the rest of the file hangs from. The report keeps its place in the record.
Investigations & appearances
The team claimed shadow-figure footage on the lighthouse staircase and unexplained sounds during the televised investigation.
Methods: EVP recording, thermal imaging, camera surveillance
Planning a visit
Visitor details change. Confirm with the site before travelling.
Sources on file
- 01Plan Your VisitSt. Augustine Lighthouse and Maritime Museum · museum · A2
- 02St. Augustine LightWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
- 03St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum — officialSt. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum · official site · A2
- 04Ghost HuntersWikipedia · encyclopedia · A4
Field notes & open questions
Discovery record. Coordinates, earliest legend source, independent history and current visitor rules require further verification.