Barcelona Lighthouse Still A Beacon
In 2007 the historic Barcelona Lighthouse and keeper’s cottage, located in Westfield, were acquired by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historical Preservation. Although the grounds are open year-round, the Keeper’s Cottage – which features exhibits provided by the Chautauqua County Historical Society – is open to the public during staffed hours from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
The lighthouse, the first public building lit with natural gas in the U.S., and the keeper’s cottage were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
In the early 1800s a manmade harbor at the outlet of Chautauqua Creek called Portland Harbor provided a haven for all kinds of lake traffic and a rest spot for passengers traveling between Erie and Buffalo. By 1831 the harbor had three long docks and four warehouses. From Portland Harbor, goods could also be transported via a seven-mile portage to Chautauqua Lake, then down the Allegheny River to Pittsburgh, then to the Ohio River and beyond.
Lake Erie was a busy highway. Portland Harbor and the adjoining rough community that became Westfield played an important part. Recognizing this fact, the U.S. Congress designated Portland Harbor an official port of entry, and in 1828 local congressman Daniel Garnsey persuaded Congress to appropriate $5,000 to construct a lighthouse complex at Portland (now Barcelona) Harbor.
Congressman Garnsey and Judge William Peacock selected a lot overlooking the harbor and it was purchased on July 10, 1828 for $50 from the Holland Land Company. Peacock was appointed construction supervisor.
The following month, a $2,700 contract for constructing the lighthouse and a keeper’s dwelling was awarded to Judge Thomas B. Campbell. The contract specifically called for “11 patent lamps; eleven 14” reflectors and 2 spare lamps; double tin oil butts for 500 gals. of (whale) oil; 1 lantern canister and iron trivet, etc.”
Using native, rough-split fieldstone, Campbell constructed a 40-foot, conical tower with a base diameter of 22 feet. The outer ends of the wooden treads in the spiral staircase were embedded in the tower’s masonry, while a massive timber standing at the center of the tower supported the inner ends.
A keeper's dwelling and an outhouse were fashioned out of the same local materials, and every structure was given a double coat of whitewash. Out of the original $5,000 appropriation, only $3,506.78 was spent. The job was completed by June 1829.
About this time the usefulness of natural gas bubbling up in some of the streams in the region as a source of artificial light was discovered and being exploited. Someone had the bright idea to use it at the lighthouse instead of expensive whale oil.
On January 1, 1831, Thomas Campbell signed a contract with the collector of customs and lighthouse inspector at Buffalo to provide the Barcelona Lighthouse with natural gas “at all times and seasons” and “to keep the apparatus and fixtures in repair” at an annual cost of $213, payable quarterly. The result was the first illumination by natural gas of a public building in the U.S.
To capture the gas, workers dug into nearby Tupper Creek where gas was found. A masonry cap was erected over this spot, and the captured gas was transported via hollowed-out wooden pipes to the lighthouse. As was reported at the time in the Fredonia Censor: “The Lighthouse at Portland Harbor…is now illuminated in the most splendid style by natural carbureted hydrogen gas…(that) constantly issue(s) from the fissures of a rock, which forms the bed of a little brook that empties into Lake Erie near the harbor, in such quantity as to be easily set on fire by applying a flame to it.”
W.A. Hart built a unique stand of lamps to burn the gas atop the tower. The device was described as two tiers of horizontal arms that extended in a semicircle from a central tube. The lower level had seven arms and the upper six were spaced evenly above the arms of the lower tier. At the end of each arm was a gas burner with a reflector.
It was said that when viewed from Lake Erie at night, it looked as if the whole tower was “one complete, constant and unwavering blaze.”
Natural gas was in use at the lighthouse until at least 1851 according to the Treasury Department report for that year; however, it was not always dependable, and oil was required from time to time as a substitute fuel.
In 1844 the government spent $56,000 for a larger pier and breakwall. Unfortunately, the “Great Storm” on October 15 that year virtually destroyed the improvements along with the old structures. Efforts by local businessmen were made to restore the harbor but by 1855, the lighthouse’s days were numbered. The recently extended (1852) Erie Railroad doomed efforts to re-create the harbor. The annual report of the Lighthouse Board for that year noted that Barcelona did not possess a harbor, and that its lighthouse was not necessary even as a “lake coast light.”
Even though it was now considered unnecessary, the Barcelona Lighthouse was upgraded with a new “lens apparatus” (a fourth-order Fresnel lens) in 1857. Two years later the end came when the Lighthouse Board discontinued its financial support, citing the “mutations of commerce and changes of channels or harbors.”
According to a clause in the original deed, the lighthouse property would revert to the original owners, the Holland Land Company, if the lighthouse was discontinued. The land fell into the hands of Lieutenant Governor George W. Patterson of Westfield, who was also an agent for the company. In 1872 he paid $5 for the land and $500 for the structures on the property.
The lighthouse remained in the Patterson family for five generations, more than a century. During that period the dwelling was enlarged and extensively modified. In 1960 a new Barcelona Harbor was created by the federal government mainly for recreational activities. The new harbor sported a pair of substantial concrete and steel breakwalls and a publicly accessible pier and park complex.