St. Marks NWR Lighthouse
— the oldest light still standing on the Gulf.
Not only on a wall.
St. Marks NWR Lighthouse, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“A short white tower on the salt marsh where the St. Marks River meets Apalachee Bay. The current structure dates to 1842, the second light on this point and one of the oldest still standing on the Gulf of Mexico. It sits at the southern terminus of Lighthouse Road, the seven-mile drive through St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, the first refuge ever established on the Big Bend coast. The marsh runs to the horizon in three directions. Roseate spoonbills work the shallows in summer, and in winter the road is one of the better places in Florida to see whooping cranes and bald eagles together.
The place, in three passes.
The St. Marks Light stands at the mouth of the St. Marks River where it empties into Apalachee Bay, on the Big Bend coast of Florida about 25 miles south of Tallahassee. The current tower was completed in 1842, replacing an 1831 light whose foundation eroded; it rises 73 feet and remains an active aid to navigation under U.S. Coast Guard authority. The light sits inside St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1931 as one of the oldest refuges in the national system, protecting roughly 70,000 acres of salt marsh, pine flatwoods, and freshwater impoundments along 43 miles of coastline.
The refuge sits squarely on the Atlantic Flyway and hosts more than 300 documented bird species across the year. Winter is the headline season: thousands of waterfowl, large concentrations of bald eagles, and the small reintroduced flock of whooping cranes that overwinters in the area, part of the eastern migratory population that totals fewer than 100 birds. The summer months bring nesting roseate spoonbills and wood storks to the impoundments. The light itself stands at the apex of a long sight line over open marsh, which makes the air around it feel unusually clean for the Gulf coast.
The refuge is open daily from sunrise to sunset, with a per-vehicle entry fee around 5 dollars; the visitor center off US 98 keeps shorter weekday hours. Lighthouse Road runs about seven miles from the entrance to the tower, with pull-offs at Stoney Bayou, Mounds Pool, and Tower Pond. The lighthouse grounds are open daily; the tower interior opens for periodic public climbs scheduled by the refuge. Mosquitoes are heavy from May through October; the cooler months, roughly November through March, are the better visit and the better wildlife window.
