Living with the knowledge that your waterfront property is under constant threat from violent storm surges and strong tidal currents is nothing new for those who call the Ponce Inlet area home. In fact, the first lighthouse to mark the entrance to Ponce De Leon (originally Mosquito) Inlet collapsed into the sea due to coastal erosion. Completed in May of 1835 on the south side of the inlet, the 45-foot-tall Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse was less than a year old when a violent Nor’easter swept the area and washed the sand dune on which the lighthouse was built partially away. Lacking a strong foundation, the tower started to lean and eventually toppled into the sea.
A seawall is one of the most common and effective ways to fight coastal erosion. The concrete sea wall that now guards the Pacetti Hotel’s shoreline was constructed by Olivia Gamble in the 1930s. It replaced an earlier seawall made from palmetto logs that was built by the Pacetti family in the late 1800s. Although the original palmetto seawall no longer exists, evidence of the logs, driven vertically into the bottom of the Halifax River, can still be seen during extreme low tides.
