Welcome to the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse

The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse has stood on the Cape for over 155 years. Situated amidst America’s Premier Gateway to Space, the lighthouse is owned by the United States Space Force and maintained as an active aid to navigation by the United States Coast Guard. Visits to the lighthouse, museum, and gift shop are available via prescheduled tours, only.

Since we are located on an active military installation, you cannot drive your own vehicle onto the facility. Members of the public can only visit by taking a tour, which must be booked at least four days prior. Please see our Visit page for tour information.

Active duty military with CAC cards may come onto the station to visit the lighthouse, but cannot escort non-badged visitors without prior approval of SLD 45. Unlike most other military installations, a retired military ID will not gain you access to CCSFS. You will have to take the public tour. Open House for CCSFS badged personnel occurs every Wednesday from 10:00 – 1:00. Hangar C will also be open during these hours.

PLEASE NOTE: Only US Citizens or Permanent Residents (green card) are allowed on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at this time.

CAPE CANAVERAL LIGHTHOUSE VIRTUAL TOUR – created by the University of South Florida Center for Digital Heritage & Geospatial Information

CAPE CANAVERAL LIGHTHOUSE VIDEO

Check out our brochure.

For more tours, videos, podcasts and stories, please visit our Explore and Learn page.

The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation is supported by the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners and the Space Coast Office of Tourism.

Latest News

Lighthouse tours have resumed, following Hurricane Milton.

THANK YOU TO BREVARD COUNTY AND THE TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL

On September 17th, the Brevard Board of County Commissioners approved the recommendation of the Tourist Development Council to award the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Foundation a grant of $775,000 out of tourism taxes to help us reconstruct two additional cottages at the lighthouse that were destroyed in 1966. These funds will be used in conjunction with funds raised by the Foundation over the past five years to build a Replica Cottage, interpreting the lives of the keepers, their families, early settlers, and indigenous peoples. The second cottage will provide interactive and immersive experiences to stimulate visitor curiosity and learning. The project is projected to complete at the end of 2025, or shortly thereafter. Thank you to everyone who supported our efforts! We look forward to being able to tell more of our shared local history, as well as our historic ties to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station – the World’s Premier Gateway to Space!

Click here for the Florida Today story on the grant.

Click here for the WESH 2 story on the grant.

RACE TO MAKE HISTORY

Join us at the American Muscle Car Museum on November 30, 2024, for a night of fun, food, and #fundraising! Help support the restoration of Cape Canaveral Lighthouse by enjoying an open bar, seafood buffet, and exclusive access to this private venue. Plus, don’t miss out on our 50/50 Raffle, Silent Auction, and Live Auction! Tickets: $100 for 2, $75 for 1 (includes drinks & food!) All proceeds go toward rebuilding the #historic Keeper’s Cottages.

Click here to purchase tickets.

Checkout this News 6 Hidden Gem report on our Lighthouse!

Check out this new Hometown News article by our own volunteer, Kerri McMullen!

Our 2024 National Lighthouse Day Dance Contest!

View the Dussich Dance Studio Video.

View the Encore Dance Academy Video.

CAPE CANAVERAL WINS THE 2024 US LIGHTHOUSE SOCIETY DANCE CONTEST!!

CONGRATULATIONS to both the Encore Dance Academy and the Dussich Dance Studio for being selected as two out of five finalists to the US Lighthouse Society 2024 Dance contest. Encore won this national competition on 7 September and Dussich won a special award for participation by youth dancers! I hope you’ve all seen their videos by now (see below). Thank you to everyone who voted for them!

View the Dussich Dance Studio Video.

View the Encore Dance Academy Video.

From 5pm Friday 16 August through 5pm Sunday 18 August, the lighthouse museum once again hosted our friends at the Kennedy Space Center Amateur Radio Club as they participated in the largest international radio event of the year. This event is where radio operators around the world send and receive communications from lighthouses and other locations to celebrate the history and importance of lighthouses. This year, the Club had an amazing weekend, logging 626 contacts. They worked 40 states, 3 continents (North America, Europe, Africa), and 16 countries (Austria, Canada, Canary Islands, Ceuta & Melilla, Dominican Republic, England, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Morocco, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, USA). They made contact with 17 other lighthouses, including 5 in other countries: Canada, England, Ireland, and Germany. We can’t wait to have them back next year! Check out this video of the action with Holly Purdy and Kevin Zari!

Watch this great video of a Cape Canaveral Lighthouse tour by Arthur Annis during 2023’s National lighthouse Day.

Check out this Hometown News article on volunteering at the lighthouse from one of our own docents, Kerri McMullen. If you would like to volunteer and help us share the lighthouse history and experience, please complete the Volunteer Form on our Get Involved page.

Hidden gem at Cape Canaveral | North Brevard | hometownnewsbrevard.com

Our 4th Order Fresnel Lens on loan from the Coast Guard is now on display in the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse Museum!

We now have a 4th Order Fresnel lens on loan from the U.S. Coast Guard. This type of lens is significant to the Cape Canaveral lighthouse as it was used twice in its history. During the Civil War, the old Winslow Lewis Lamp was removed from the original brick lighthouse when all lighthouses in the South were ordered to go dark. After the war, a 4th Order Fresnel lens was installed in the brick lighthouse from 1865-1868, when the iron lighthouse was built and began using a 1st Order Fresnel lens. Later in 1893-1894 when the iron lighthouse was dismantled and moved a mile inland due to beach erosion concerns, a skeletal tower was built and used a 4th Order lens until the move was completed. The 4th Order lens now in the museum was made in America circa 1905 by the MacBeth-Evans Glass Company. It’s just under 3-feet tall and likely weighs over 500 lbs. This is definitely worth a special trip to see a Fresnel lens up close.

Members and Brick Holders are eligible to take a quarterly tour of the lighthouse and Hangar C. If you’re not yet a member or brick holder, please consider becoming a member or buying a brick before our next quarterly tour so you can take advantage of this special FREE event, only open to those individuals.

See our Visit Page to book your tours.

Upcoming Events

Join Museums of Brevard for the 5^th Annual Museums of Brevard Holiday Tour. See beautiful architecture and gorgeous holiday decorations! This unique event is a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season and makes a great gift idea for the person who has everything. The tours will be held December 6th-8th and December 13th-15th. You can visit 3 of the 6 historic homes for $30. Add the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse for just $10 more. Lighthouse tours will be available December 6th, December 15th and January 4th. Reservations must be made at least 7 days prior.

Tickets on sale now! Available for purchase online only. Click here for tickets.

Ticket sales close on Thursday, December 12th. Only 250 tickets available. So, don’t delay!

Please come visit all of us!

The Museums of Brevard (MOB) is a 501(C)3 nonprofit association of museums and historic sites in Brevard County, Florida (including the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse). Together we: advertise and promote each other’s facilities both individually and jointly; share activity information and coordinate upcoming events; share best practices and lessons learned in museum administration and management, including fundraising, grant writing and collections management; and assist other members with special requests.

Check out the MOB Brochure and see all the sites!

Like the MOB on Facebook and find out all the things happening!

ECAC PROGRAM FOR BREVARD STUDENTS

The Cape Canaveral Lighthouse is partnering with the Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum and the Sands Space History Center as proud members of the ECAC education program – Education & Citizenship Armed Forces Coalition of the Space Coast. Students from any public, private, charter or home school may come out to visit all three venues together. The Sands Space History Center is accessible outside the gate to the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, but the Lighthouse and Space Force Museum require reservations and special clearance to visit, though both are included in a single tour.

Free 3-hour caravan tours are available in June and July on the 1^st and 3^rd Saturdays of the month at 9:30, and from August through May on the 2nd Saturday of the month. There will be no tours in December. RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED AT LEAST 2 WEEKS PRIOR for the free caravan tour. Please email lighthousetours@canaverallight.org with Subject: “Brevard School Tours”. Paid tours at other times may be booked on our Visit page. Discounts may be available. The Sands Space History Center is free and available Tuesday thru Friday 9-2, Saturday 10-5, Sunday 12-4, Monday Closed. The Lighthouse, the Space Force Museum and the Sands Space History Center are unable to offer service hours.

Message from Our Foundation President

In the July Canaveral Beacon, I informed you the Governor vetoed the appropriation for Phase 2 of our Light Station Reconstruction, and our Grant Committee was working on a Capital Facilities Grant from the Brevard County Tourist Development Council. In July we completed the grant application and presented the grant request to the TDC’s Capital Facilities Grant subcommittee. The subcommittee members asked questions about
funding, how long was it going to take, how we were going to complete the project, and other aspects of the project. Between Becky Zingarelli, Rocky Johnson, and myself we were able to answer all the questions. In the end, we felt good about our request.

In August Becky and I attended the Grading meeting where the subcommittee assigned scores to each grant request. Cape Canaveral Lighthouse was the only project that received the required score of 75. The committee then voted on how much money to recommend to the TDC. By a vote of 5 to 2, the committee recommended to the TDC that we receive the requested amount of $775,000. UPDATE: The TDC voted on August 28, 2024, to recommend approval of our full request to the Brevard County Commissioners. We now have just one more hurdle before we can celebrate. Please consider attending the County Commissioners’ meeting on September 17 at 9:00am – there is strength in numbers! It is going to take
more than luck! See full update on Page 15.

Also, in July we held our Christmas in July fundraiser at the Rising Tide Tap & Table in Port Canaveral, and it was a successful event. We “sold” all 250 tickets, and after paying for the food and drinks, we cleared over $20,000 in fundraising donations. Thanks to everyone who sold and/or purchased a ticket and attended the event. Remember, this event had two parts, the July event, and a caravan in December to see the decorated Lighthouse. Please remember to check your email around the first of November for the caravan dates and sign-up information.

After a busy July, August has been just as busy. August 7 was National Lighthouse Day and for the second year the United States Lighthouse Society (USLHS) requested dance videos to the tune of “Meet Me at The Lighthouse”. We entered last year but did not finish in the top three so this year we selected two dance groups, Dussich Dance Studio and Encore Dance Academy, and submitted both videos, in the hope that we can win one of the prizes. We also offered a free caravan, and we had eighty-five people visit the lighthouse.

In addition to the caravan on National Lighthouse Day, we offered a free caravan on International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend and had another eighty-three people visit the Lighthouse. During the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend, Amateur Radio Clubs transmit from Lighthouses. Kennedy Space Center Amateur Radio Club uses our museum from which to transmit. See more information on this event throughout this issue of the Beacon. In addition, WKMG-TV News 6 did a story on International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend and the free tour Cape Canaveral Lighthouse was offering. We told them that both tours were filled, and we could not sign up any more people, but we still received over a thousand emails requesting the free tour. We informed them on how to join and become eligible for the free membership caravans.

Please visit our website https://canaverallight.org for additional information.

Thank you for your help in keeping our light shining into the future.

Ron