Crews have spent the summer making repairs to the Middle Bay Lighthouse, the weathered screw-pile structure that has stood over Mobile Bay for 140 years and remains one of the coast’s most recognizable landmarks.
Since late June, crews have been working on the lighthouse’s roof, walkway and other parts of the unique structure, which the Alabama Historical Commission has protected as a historic property since 2003. Eleanor Cunningham, the lighthouse’s site director, previously said the commission solicited bids for the work in August and September 2025.
A Facebook post by the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla of the Eastern Shore put the price of the repair work and paint job at $1.2 million.
A different kind of lighthouse
Middle Bay Light is the fifth and final beacon that was erected for Mobile Bay’s water traffic, perched a few miles south of Gaillard Island when it went into service in September 1885. It is built in the “screw-pile” style — a cottage-like structure raised on iron legs screwed into the bay bottom — a design far more common on the Chesapeake Bay than on the Gulf Coast, which makes the structure a rarity on this stretch of coastline.
The lighthouse is not open to the public, and the Alabama Historical Commission has periodically rehabilitated it over the years to repair the punishing effects of salt air, hurricanes and standing water on a wooden building that sits a few miles south of Gaillard Island.
From keepers to automation
The light’s white and red beam was automated by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1935, ending the era in which a keeper had to live at the station and tend the lamp each night. The lighthouse was fully removed from service in 1967, but it still serves working boaters as a local waypoint, and it appears on nautical charts and in countless photographs of the bay.
Previous restoration work was substantial: after decades of neglect, the lighthouse underwent renovations of nearly $350,000 under the guidance of the Alabama Historical Commission before the current campaign of work.
Why the upkeep matters
Historic preservation groups consider Middle Bay the last surviving example of its building type in Alabama waters, and each repair cycle is a race against the weather. Roofs and walkways that go unrepaired invite water intrusion that can gut a structure within a few storm seasons, which is why the commission has kept the lighthouse on its maintenance rotation even though the beacon no longer guides ships.
The lighthouse has also become a fixture of local art, photography and civic identity — a silhouette on the horizon for boaters running between Mobile and the Eastern Shore.
The current work is expected to extend the structure’s life for years to come, and the commission has not announced a completion date. Once crews finish the roof and walkway repairs, the plan will return the lighthouse to the role it has played since Grover Cleveland was president: standing watch over the middle of the bay.