MARQUETTE–The Marquette Harbor Lighthouse has overlooked the Lake Superior shoreline for more than 150 years.

It stands as one of the City of Marquette’s most iconic structures.

The building has overlooked McCarty’s Cove since the building was constructed in 1853, just four years after the city’s incorporation in 1849.

According to the Lighthouse Friends website, Congress provided $5,000 for the lighthouse on September 28, 1850, and all but $25 was spent to build the structure.

While the lighthouse has changed in appearance over the years, including getting its recognizable red paint job in the 1960’s, its historic significance has remained.

In 2002, a thirty-year lease on the lighthouse was finalized between the Coast Guard and Marquette Maritime Museum, which proposed plans to place memorabilia and artifacts on the first floor of the dwelling and restore the second story as a turn-of-the-nineteenth-century keeper’s residence.

The Coast Guard had last used the lighthouse as a residence for its personnel in 1998. Marquette Maritime Museum does offer seasonal tours of the structure, which some say is haunted.

Finally, on July 30, 2016, Marquette Mayor Dave Campana signed a deed officially transferring the lighthouse to the City of Marquette. One condition of the transfer is that tours of the lighthouse will continue to be offered by the maritime museum.

It has also been used on several pieces that market the area over the last several decades.