The house was built as a copy of The Thomas Point Lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay. It resembles a crab with long legs under the lighthouse, approximately 15 ' from the sand to the first floor.  Dixie says: "I had some trepidation, whether I would have to light the light at the pinnacle of the roof, would it have a fog horn that blew every few minutes, would I be safe when the January storms came, high waves rolled up onto the coast line, and could I with stand the month of January 2005 ALONE in a lighthouse"?


"It was fun, visualizing what it would have been like, being a lighthouse keeper, what It meant to ships at sea seeing the lighthouse light and hearing the foghorn to alert them, that there was a safe haven close by".

  

"It was a wonderful experience. I was alone for about 15 days of the five weeks that I was there. The weather was very cold as Ameila Island is about even to Jacksonville but due East. Had two North Eastern Wind Storms so they blew huge waves upon the sand but there is a high sand bank in front of the lighthouse and I was never afraid that the water would come near the lighthouse.




  I shall always carry in my heart, a very special place for all the
 female lighthouse keepers who were the real heroines.

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Go To: FHS CLASS OF 51

DIXIE WROTE A BOOK
She needed some quiet time and some alone/time to write a book about an imaginary friend of her triplet grandchildren.

Dixie wanted to be a "keeper" of a lighthouse on the sandy shore of the Atlantic Ocean. On the coast she rented a house built to resemble a lighthouse set high on a sand hill, safe from the sea's huge waves that surge onto Amelia Island, Florida. It's "KATIE's LIGHT." Her stay was from Dec. 28, 2004 through Feb.1, 2005; the whole month of JANUARY. She also completed a 3' by 5' needlepoint altar kneeler.

It is on the sand but up on high piles and I would go up a flight of stairs to a deck that surrounded the lighthouse. Then go into the lighthouse on that level. Inside the first floor was a living room, a dining area, reading area and kitchen and bath. Then up a spiral stair case to the 2nd level. It had three bedrooms up on the 2nd level with a laundry room and two bathrooms. I had two homes on either side of me but a little distance away so I felt really comfortable.



The real "Amelia Island Lighthouse" is east off I-95
by Ft. Clinch State Park, just
north of Jacksonville, FL.