This gleaming white tower, capped with a black lantern and affectionately known as “El Farito,” has stood sentinel over the Biscayne Bay for nearly 200 years. But it’s so much more more than a symbol of coastal beauty and maritime history, at least for me. It’s deeply personal.
My ancestor, Temple Pent, retired after a life of seafaring and early Dade County politics to serve as lighthouse keeper here not once, but twice—first from 1852 to 1853, and again from 1866 until 1868. His official cause of termination? Death. The man lit his final flame and never clocked out.
Cape Florida has seen it all. Originally built in 1825, it survived a Seminole raid in 1836 during the Second Seminole War, when the tower was set ablaze and partially destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1846–47, made taller in 1855, and later equipped with a Fresnel lens that beamed its light farther than ever before.
But despite the violence of earlier decades, Temple never feared the Seminoles. Quite the opposite, he was known as a friend to the Tigertail clan and was even invited to their ceremonial dances to play the fiddle. Imagine that—an old lighthouse keeper fiddling beside the fire while sacred songs rose into the night. That’s Florida history you won’t find on a plaque.
You can still raise a glass to the “Old Squire” courtesy of the Key West Trading Company, who named a spirit after him. And of course, I had to get it permenantly inked in a traditional Sailor Jerry style by my 305 homie @tattoomanlu 💖
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