Pass a L'Outre Louisiana
Harbour Lights #372

Pass a L’Outre was a replacement for one of the most expensive and architecturally magnificent lighthouses ever built, Frank’s Island Lighthouse. President Thomas Jefferson selected, Benjamin Latrobe, architect for the United States Capitol to design “a monumental lighthouse welcoming foreign trade.”

The project was massive! Latrobe designed a light to be built of marble, brick and other stone. A parapet supported by columns encircled the conical brick tower, surrounded at the base with a circular Keeper’s dwelling. The light built at a cost of $85,500 was lit for only ten days! The site selected for this massive project was inadequate to support the structure. The foundation immediately began to settle, the tower began to moan and finally fell over. The internal arches could not support the weight of the parapet, the walls on the Keepers dwelling collapsed and the columns fell to the ground.

Enter Winslow Lewis, a designer of American lighthouse reflector systems. In 1821, Lewis was hired and agreed to build a tower to be named North-East Pass. To be built at a cost of $10,000 reusing the materials form the Franks Island on a new guaranteed foundation. Over time, Frank’s island disappeared and Lewis’ abandoned tower sank into the mud.

Pass a L’Outre, the “pass beyond” was lit for the first time on 6 December 1855 on the Mississippi Delta and was put out of commission during the Civil War. On 20 April 1863, with a new Keeper’s dwelling and the tower having received a new brick lining with a thick coat of coal tar, Pass a L’Outre was relit.

Around 1868, both the Keeper’s dwelling and the tower began to sink into the soft ground. By 1876, the waters of the high tide began flooding the lighthouse tower floor. Eventually, the floor was raised 5’ and the door heightened.

In it final years of service, the tower was given a black and white day mark.

Decommissioned in 1930, the lighthouse did see some signs of life during the Prohibition, the United States Coast Guard using the site as surveillance for rumrunners.

Today, the Keeper’s dwelling and other buildings are long gone, the tower covered by rust and graffiti. The tower continues to sink deeper into the Birdfoot Delta. Hurricane Katrina loosened the lantern room causing it to topple.