In the days when lighthouses required keepers – before electronic automation took over during the 1900s – it was necessary that each keeper climb to the lantern room each day to clean and maintain the lanterns and reflectors, as well as each night to light the lamp, trim the wicks every four hours, replenish the oil, wind clockworks that turned the lamp, and make sure the light was burning brightly throughout the night.

Beginning around the turn of the 19th century, the president appointed keepers to their posts.