Old Baldy Lighthouse, the oldest still-standing lighthouse in North Carolina, has a rich history that traces the evolution of coastal navigation and the challenges of maintaining reliable beacons in a changing landscape. The story of Old Baldy begins with its predecessor, the original Bald Head Lighthouse, which was constructed in 1794 and torn down in 1813. The bricks and lantern from the original lighthouse, still in good condition, were repurposed for a new tower that would be built by Daniel Way in 1816.
 

Way initially bid for the project under the assumption that the new tower would be built near the original lighthouse and would reuse many of the existing materials. However, he arrived on Bald Head Island in December of 1816 to find that the site had been moved about three-quarters of a mile northeast by Robert Cochran, the Superintendent of Lighthouses for the region. Despite the change in plans, Way and his team of workers proceeded to transport 60,000 bricks and the lantern room from the original site to the new location via the Cape Fear River and Lighthouse Creek.
 

Construction of Old Baldy
The construction of Old Baldy was completed on April 1, 1817, and the lighthouse began its first operations. Sedgwick Springs became the first official keeper of the lighthouse. The tower, standing at 110 feet, was octagonal in shape, made from a combination of recycled bricks and newly-pressed bricks. It was covered in stucco to protect the structure from the elements. This lighthouse became a key navigation aid for sailors approaching the dangerous waters of the Frying Pan Shoals, though it had its share of problems from the start.
 

Old Baldy's Performance and Criticisms
Sailors quickly voiced dissatisfaction with Old Baldy, complaining that the lighthouse's location and height made it ineffective in warning ships about the hazardous Frying Pan Shoals. The chief complaint was that the lighthouse was too short, too far inland, and too dim. In 1852, the U.S. Lighthouse Board acknowledged these criticisms, describing Old Baldy as “comparatively useless” due to its poor location and the insufficient light it emitted.
In an effort to improve its functionality, a third-order Fresnel lens was installed to increase the brightness of the light.

However, the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 further complicated the lighthouse's usefulness. The Confederacy shut down Southern lighthouses, including Old Baldy, in an effort to confuse Union naval blockade forces. After the war, the U.S. Lighthouse Board faced the challenge of restoring lighthouses across the South, but Old Baldy’s lens was not immediately prioritized due to ongoing political and environmental changes in the area.
The Changing Landscape: New Inlet and the Shift in Shipping Routes
In the 1860s, a storm created a new inlet near Fort Fisher, named New Inlet, which shifted the hydrology of the Cape Fear River and made navigation even more difficult at Old Inlet, where Old Baldy was located. By the end of the Civil War, some even suggested that New Inlet might become the new primary shipping route, rendering Old Baldy’s location less important.
 

Amid these changes, the U.S. Lighthouse Board faced financial and logistical challenges in maintaining Old Baldy. The decision to replace Old Baldy’s outdated lantern room and lens was postponed as the board focused on more urgent repairs to other navigation aids.
 

The Restoration of Old Baldy: 1879
The situation changed in the late 1870s when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided to close New Inlet and restore Old Inlet as the primary route for shipping. With the Cape Fear River once again an important shipping channel, attention returned to Old Baldy. However, by this time, the lighthouse's lantern room had been neglected, and a more practical solution was needed to restore the tower's functionality.
In 1879, the Board decided to replace the old lantern room with a "screw-pile" lantern room, a more cost-effective and simpler structure compared to the original. The new lantern room was designed to hold a fourth-order Fresnel lens, which was smaller and more efficient than the original third-order lens. Unfortunately, this replacement lantern room was placed off-center atop Old Baldy.
 

Why the Lantern Room Is Off-Center
The off-center placement of the lantern room atop Old Baldy has sparked many theories. Some believe it was done for structural reasons, while others suggest it was positioned that way to make the lighthouse more visible from the water. However, the true reason seems to be more practical than romantic. The U.S. Lighthouse Board, in an effort to economize, opted for a standard lantern room design that didn’t fit precisely with the original architecture of Old Baldy. This resulted in the slightly misaligned lantern room, which became an enduring feature of the lighthouse.
 

Old Baldy's Legacy
In 1879, the lighthouse was re-lit, and Joseph Bell became the first lighthouse keeper for its “second life.” Despite the improvements, complaints about Old Baldy’s effectiveness continued, and in 1903, the Cape Fear Lighthouse was built on the other side of Bald Head Island to better serve the needs of sailors navigating the region.
The original lantern room and the third-order Fresnel lens from Old Baldy were removed during the Civil War, and their whereabouts remain a mystery to this day. As for Old Baldy, it remains a historic symbol of the evolution of coastal navigation and the trials of maintaining a functional lighthouse in the face of changing tides, politics, and geography.
Today, Old Baldy stands as a testament to the persistence and adaptability of those who built and maintained it, and it continues to be a beloved landmark on Bald Head Island.