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Nearly forgotten about in the dusty pages of time is the little known fact that many decades ago the lighthouse keepers’ homes at North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, America’s tallest lighthouse, were once painted in pastel colors.
According to historian John Havel, the idea of painting the buildings in pastel colors was hatched as part of the National Park Service’s “Mission 66” project, to address and dramatically expand park visitors’ centers and experiences before their 50th anniversary in 1966. The colors chosen were salmon pink, lemon yellow, and Robin’s egg blue.
At Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the assistant keeper’s home was painted blue and the head keeper’s house was painted salmon pink. Additionally, the lighthouse keeper’s house at Bodie Island Lighthouse in nearby Nags Head, North Carolina, which is a duplicate of the assistant keeper’s house at Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, was also painted Robin’s-egg-blue. By 1971, all of the buildings at the lighthouses were again painted white.
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