Menu
Preserving Florida
The lighthouse seen along the brick path that leads to it, framed by palm trunks and sea grape. In the three-dimensional model a tall section of the tower has been cut away, so the black iron spiral staircase inside is visible turning up the white shaft past a landing and a bright window. The open door at the foot of the tower shows the first steps. To the right, a wooden fence, a bench and the sea.
The survey cuts the tower open: the spiral staircase that guests saw projected onto the lighthouse itself.Still from the three-dimensional survey. RealitySync by Preference Consulting for Preserving Florida, 2025.
Ver en español

Cape Florida Lighthouse

Miami-Dade County's oldest standing structure, first lit on 17 December 1825 and recorded in three dimensions two hundred years later, to the day.

Overview

The lighthouse stands at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. It was first lit on 17 December 1825, which makes it the oldest structure still standing in Miami-Dade County, and its work was the Florida Reef: the line of coral that has wrecked ships along this coast for as long as ships have passed. Two centuries of hurricanes, war and fire have not brought it down.

This page is built on an account of the bicentennial evening of 17 December 2025 and on the three-dimensional survey of the tower and the keeper's cottage recorded for it. The survey is what every picture here is taken from, and the film below is a pass through it.

Subject headings
Maritime history, Architecture

Two hundred years

The light was first shown on 17 December 1825. What it marked was the Florida Reef, and what it was for was the ships working the coast, which without it had only the sound of breaking water to warn them.

The lighthouse seen from its foot, looking up the tapering white tower to the black gallery and the glazed lantern room at the top. A single small window is set into the shaft. A palm frond crosses the upper left corner against a pale sky.
The tower, first lit on 17 December 1825.Still from the three-dimensional survey. RealitySync by Preference Consulting for Preserving Florida, 2025.

In the two centuries since, the tower has come through hurricanes, war and fire, and it is still there — one of the most durable and most recognisable landmarks in south Florida.

The bicentennial night

The anniversary was kept on 17 December 2025 at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, organised by the Friends of Cape Florida. The lighthouse and the keeper's cottage were turned into a tribute to the layered past of the place: an immersive theatre piece, live music, and an appearance by Bill Baggs himself — or, at least, by a very convincing lookalike.

Among the guests were descendants of John duBose, the lighthouse's first keeper.

After dark the tower became a screen. Larger-than-life figures of Bill Baggs and reenactments of moments from the history of Cape Florida were projected onto its white shaft, and with them the survey: a point cloud of the interior that assembled itself from the ground up, the spiral staircase lit from within, and views of other landmarks across south Florida. Visitors saw the lighthouse and its grounds as no one had seen them before.

The survey

The survey was made with RealitySync, Preference Consulting's three-dimensional scanning system. It captured the lighthouse and the keeper's cottage in full detail — every angle, every contour, and the spaces a visitor never sees.

The keeper's cottage in the three-dimensional model with its roof and outer walls removed, seen from above. The furnished rooms are laid open: a rocking chair on an oval rug, a bed under a curtained window, a kitchen with a brick fireplace and shelves of crockery, and a porch running along the front. A rope fence and pale ground surround the building.
The keeper's cottage, opened up by the survey — including the spaces a visitor never sees.Still from the three-dimensional survey. RealitySync by Preference Consulting for Preserving Florida, 2025.

Preference Consulting was invited to take part by Christina Bracken, president of the Friends of Cape Florida.

A permanent record

The lighthouse now has a permanent visual record. Should a hurricane damage it, or should it simply wear, the survey allows it to be rebuilt faithfully to within a centimetre.

That is the case for digital preservation, and the reason this archive keeps such records: a building described this closely can go on being described long after its fabric has changed.

The lighthouse in 3D

Watch this film on YouTube · 1 min 47 secOpens on YouTube, in a new tab. Nothing is loaded from them until you choose to.

This film has no sound.

A pass through the three-dimensional survey, from the foot of the tower to the lantern room, with the buildings cut open.RealitySync by Preference Consulting for Preserving Florida, 2025.

Chronology

The Cape Florida Lighthouse is lit for the first time and begins its work guiding sailors past the Florida Reef.
RealitySync, by Preference Consulting, records the lighthouse and the keeper's cottage in three dimensions.
The Friends of Cape Florida keep the bicentennial at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. The survey is projected onto the tower.

Artifacts

Explore further