Hams Bluff Light, Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands
HAMS BLUFF LIGHT
ST. CROIX, VIRGIN ISLANDS
Station Established: 1915
Location: 17° 46.3' N x 64° 52.3' W
Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1915
Operational? No
Automated: Yes; 7 February 1975
Deactivated: ?; mid-1990s
Foundation Materials: Concrete
Construction Materials: Cast iron
Tower Shape: Cylindrical
Markings/Pattern: White tower with black cupola
Relationship to Other Structure: Separate; quarters at bottom of hill
Original Lens: Original lens made by A. B. Lux, Company of Denmark; replaced in 1921 with a French-made lens (Barbier, Bernard & Turenne, lens originially constructed 1912-1913). That lens was replaced in 1949 by a lens made in 1949 by "Crouse Hinds, L. H. Beacon, U.S.S." Quartz-iodine incandescent lamps were added on 15 June 1967
Historical Information:
- The Hams Bluff Light Station was designed and built in 1915 by the Danish government. It is situated on the northwestern coast of St. Croix, Virgin Islands, on a bluff named Hams Bluff. The bluff rises approximately 360 feet above sea level. The property is a 0.25-acre circular parcel of land that measures 120 feet in diameter. The light station is centered in the middle of the land parcel. The land around the structure is mostly undeveloped, consisting of tropical trees and shrubs.
- The original site consisted of 22.5 acres and included a lighthouse and two one-story keeper's quarters. On 21 October 1981, the Coast Guard transferred the property to the U.S. Navy with the exception of the lighthouse and 0.25 acres of land surrounding it. In 1912, the Directorate of the Danish Lighthouse Service purchased the property from J. W. Blackwood. The land was later ceded to the United States by Denmark under the Convention of Cession to the United States of the Danish West Indies, dated August 4, 1916, and proclaimed by the President of the United States of America on January 25, 1917. On July 20, 1917, by Executive Order No. 2670, the President of the United States ordered that all public property of the former government of the Virgin Islands ceded to the United States, consisting of lighthouses and the public land adjacent to and used in connection with, were taken for the uses and purposes of the United States. The light was deactivated sometime in the mid-1990s.