This was a nice hotel to visit if you are a golfer. If not there is a hiking trail and pool but not much else to do. We went to rest and relax so this was fine. I didn't find 2 restaurants, only one. I wasn't too happy with the service or the food. On Friday night we had a 2 hour wait before our meal. I asked for the bill after 30 minutes and was asked did I want our salads. I said yes and to make our meal to go. When we were finished with our salad I asked again for the bill. I was told it would be brought in a minute. After watching several tables who came in after us get there salads/bills, I asked again could I et the bill. Finally, I was brought the bill with my food to go. It was very hot so was just made - 2 hours after we arrived. If I was told that there would have been an hour wait I would have driven into town. Instead, after driving 5 hours to get there I waited 2 hours for a fried fish meal I could have gotten for half the price at a casual restaurant nearby. Needless to say we ate breakfast there - a fair buffet - and did not go back for lunch or dinner but ate elsewhere.
I love to stop and take pictures of old churches. We usually go in and light a candle or just say a prayer. We were disappointed that we couldn’t go inside but what was more upsetting is that it appeared someone had tried to break in. It was a lovely little church.
The region southwest of New Orleans is known as Louisiana’s plantation country. Before the advent of the railroad, a good portion of the plantation crops was floated down Bayou Teche, which led from New Iberia to Atchafalaya Bay. By the early 1800s, shipping traffic from the bay had increased to the point were navigational aids were merited.
The first lighthouse on Atchafalaya Bay was built on the eastern side of the bay at Point Au Fer, formerly known as Point Defer. From Point Au Fer, a shoal extends roughly fifteen miles westward, ending at what was the main channel into the bay. The bay’s first lighthouse was built at Point Au Fer in 1827. However, given its location, it proved inadequate at marking the bay’s entrance, and in 1848, Atchafalaya Bay Lightship was positioned just off the end of Point Au Fer Shoal.
Southwest Reef Lighthouse in 1914 before relocation
Lightships proved to be expensive to operate and maintain, leading the Lighthouse Board to authorize the construction of Southwest Reef Lighthouse. On August 18, 1856, Congress appropriated $20,000 for a lighthouse "to serve as a substitute for the present Atchafalaya Bay light-ship, and also for the light-house at Point de Fer." The plans for the lighthouse called for a square, pyramidal tower constructed of iron plates surmounted by a lantern room. The tower was placed atop four vertical piles screwed into the shoal and contained the keeper's living space. A red light, produced by a fourth-order Fresnel lens and having a focal plane of forty-nine feet, was displayed for the first time on September 1, 1859. The first keeper, George Wright, was transferred from the Point Au Fer Lighthouse, which had been displaced by Southwest Reef Lighthouse.
The Confederates deactivated the lighthouse during its third year of operation, and it remained dark throughout the Civil War. Following the war, the Lighthouse Board noted that Southwest Reef Lighthouse had "sustained much damage from the rebels." Union forces discovered the lamps, lens, and plates of glass from the lantern room at St. Martinville. The items were returned to the tower during the summer of 1865, and the lighthouse, after being repaired and refitted, was reactivated on the sixth anniversary of its first lighting.
During January and February of 1867, the iron lighthouse, which had previously been red, was painted with coal tar, and black remained its daymark from then on. One must think that the lighthouse would have been unbearably hot during summer.
An unusually severe hurricane swept through Atchafalaya Bay in October of 1867, damaging the exposed tower. Although the station stood approximately ten feet above the high tide mark, the storm-tossed seas broke through the bottom of the dwelling and tore the gallery from the tower. The force of the waves bent the lighthouse’s iron legs. After the storm, repairs were completed at the station, and braces were placed diagonally between the piles for added strength.
On March 3, 1873, Congress appropriated $5,000 to elevate Southwest Reef Lighthouse to protect it from the seas and another $15,000 for a steam fog signal for the station. In 1875, the lighthouse was detached from its foundation and four, ten-foot-long cast-iron columns were bolted to the top of the existing foundation piles. The structure was then lowered back into place and bolted to the columns. Before this work, the bottom of the lighthouse was eleven feet nine inches above the water, so the buffer between the lighthouse and the bay was nearly doubled.
The fog signal building was built atop four hollow cast-iron screwpiles south of the lighthouse and was connected to it by a covered passageway. The twelve-inch steam whistle commenced operation on March 31, 1875, giving ten-second blasts followed by thirty seconds of silence when necessary. During the last year of its operation, the steam whistle was active for about 127 hours and consumed 26,830 pounds of coal.
In January 1889, the steam whistle was replaced by a 1,200-pound fog bell mounted in a pyramidal tower placed atop the old fog signal building. The bell was struck by machinery every twenty seconds during periods of low visibility. The bell tower was twenty-six feet high and measured eleven by seventeen feet at its base and six by twelve feet at its top.
Just before World War I, a channel was cut through Point Au Fer Shoal, creating a more direct route to the Atchafalaya River. Point Au Fer Reef Lighthouse was constructed next to the new channel on an island formed by the dredging operation. When the new lighthouse was activated on March 31, 1916, Southwest Reef Lighthouse was discontinued. For over seventy years, the abandoned tower slowly rusted away until the Atchafalaya Delta Tourist Commission, the town of Berwick and Save Our Coast joined together to bring it ashore in 1987. House Bill 1080 transferred ownership of the lighthouse from the state to Berwick, and the lighthouse was removed from its pilings on October 8, 1987. The tower was sandblasted and partially restored at the Berry Brothers General Contractors facility in Berwick before being moved to its current location in April 1990. The finishing touches were made to the lighthouse in July 1996, when doors and windows were installed and a replica lantern room was placed atop the tower.
Today, the tower stands on the western bank of the Atchafalaya River in Berwick in Everett S. Berry Lighthouse Park, named for the mayor during the relocation of the lighthouse.
One Farmstead, Nearly 300 Years of History
Settled briefly by the Scotch-Irish Renfrew family in the mid-eighteenth century, the land was later acquired and developed by German-American tanner Daniel Royer who, along with his descendants, created a burgeoning cottage industry on 150 acres in the Cumberland Valley. Firmly rooted in their Pennsylvania German heritage, the Royers were also quintessentially American; their story closely mirrors the narrative of our young nation with central themes of industriousness, ingenuity, and innovation. By the close of the nineteenth century, the property boasted two successful farmsteads, a grist mill, lime kiln, and several outbuildings. Later occupants of the site placed their own marks on the landscape, resulting in a varied built environment with unique structures spanning the Federal to Edwardian Eras. Renfrew’s final private residents, Edgar and Emma Nicodemus, lovingly restored the property which was bequeathed to the Borough of Waynesboro as a gift to its citizens following Emma’s death in 1973.
Your tour of Renfrew begins at our Visitors Center, located in our circa 1902 bank barn. Discover how Waynesboro-area artisans and craftspeople supplied the growing population with both utilitarian and decorative goods with exhibits on the nation’s leading collection of John Bell and Bell family pottery along with a display of period tradesmen’s tools. Paid admission takes you on a guided tour of the 1812 Royer House where you will see the kitchen, dining room, parlors and bedrooms with period furnishings throughout. Special events also afford opportunities to tour outbuildings and the 1808 Fahnestock House located at the rear of the property.
Now, over two centuries after Daniel Royer’s day, much of the landscape is unchanged. As an historical institution, Renfrew offers its visitors an intimate view of the past – a chance to walk back in time. Visit us in Waynesboro, and discover how Early American agriculture, industry and domestic life worked together to make a prosperous Pennsylvania German farmstead.
Very nice place. There were so many humming birds. I went with my husband and grandson several years back and we had a wonderful time. Our host and hostess were very friendly and informative. I really loved the art made from repurposed items. I definitely would recommend going. I saw this when I was checking on where we were on my current trip and if I had realized we were this close I would have stayed there.
We visited on our anniversary trip. We left a padlock. I didn’t know anything about this but found it on a search and it was a great addition to our trip.
I grew up visiting the park and going to game in the stadium. My first Saints game was in this stadium and my first concert. My son ran track and played soccer in the park. There is also a old Girl Scout cabin, where I taught outdoor skills, that is right near the museum. My daughter and I spent the night the cabin with her troop. It’s very cool old building. The Children’s Museum is also in City Park now and it is one of the nicer ones that I have visited. I didn’t know about any ghost stories so I guess I’ll be heading out that way at night this weekend and then update my review.