Principal Keeper's Dwelling

The largest of the original Light Station dwellings, this building was the home of the Principal Keeper and his family. The kitchen wing of the house was originally separated from the living quarters by a short breezeway, but this opening was enclosed in the late 1970s to provide more exhibit space. The kitchen and enclosed breazeway house several exhibits and are built over a large celler that provided both storage space for the historic Keepers and a 5,000 gallen cistern. The light station's 3 cisterns was used to collect rainwater from the roofs of each dwelling through a system of gutters and drain pipes and provided the Keepers and their famiies with fresh drinking, cooking, cleaning and bathing water. Cisterns were used throughout the Light Station because of the high sulfur content found in the area's ground water.

The Principal Keeper's Dwelling now houses several interpretive exhibits that address a wide variety of historical topics including Native American history; Construction and Evolution of the Light Station; Restoration of the Ponce Inlet Light Station's Tower, Buildings, and Artifacts; Navigation; The role of the Lighthouse as an Aid to Navigation; Filibustering, the wreck of the steam tug Commodore, and author Stephen Crane; "Down Like Lead: 400 Years of Florida Shipwrecks", and other exhibits.