by SC Reporter Emilie Alfino
At public hearings at the Planning Commission’s June 9, 2026, meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to recommend to City Council that it put the Lighthouse and the Sanibel Cemetery on the Sanibel Register of Historic Landmarks. A third hearing on the Wulfert Cemetery was continued to an uncertain date, as commissioners wanted more information about the site. All three of the landmarks are owned by the City of Sanibel.
These landmarks are listed as historical in the Sanibel Plan but are not officially on the Sanibel Register of Historic Landmarks. The lighthouse is on the National Register and would have lost that designation when the keepers’ quarters were washed away by Hurricane Ian; however, due to the fact that the Sanibel Lighthouse is the first of its kind, with a skeletal construction named the “Sanibel class,” it remains on the National Register.
The lighthouse, at 110-153 Periwinkle Way, was constructed in 1884. The third-order lens was first lit on August 20, 1884, with a fixed white light and a white flash, standing 98 feet above the ground and powered by kerosene oil. It could be seen in good visibility 15 ¾ miles away.
The lighthouse continues to be operated by the U.S. Coast Guard with an updated lens light installed after Hurricane Ian (2022). It is a notable landmark of Sanibel Island, so much so that it is incorporated into the City logo.
The Sanibel Cemetery, located at 2001 Algiers Lane, contains at least 31 known graves, many of them unmarked, with the last burial in 1974. The cemetery contains graves of pioneer settlers and homesteaders. The land was donated as a public burial cemetery in 1888 by Reverend George Barnes, a traveling evangelist. The Sanibel Cemetery was part of Barnes’ homestead.
The cemetery site has character and value as part of Sanibel’s heritage and is associated with people who have made significant contributions to Sanibel’s history. The people buried there are significant to Sanibel’s past, among them Newton Rutland, William Reed, Helen Woodring, and Mrs. Lotz, to name just a few.
The third site being considered was the Wulfert Cemetery, located adjacent to Baltusrol Court within The Sanctuary. Graves date back to the early 1900s, and the cemetery is the only piece left of the little-known Wulfert community.
The site is extremely difficult to find and is completely overgrown. There are no markers at all. There is nothing to indicate that there is a cemetery there and, the Planning Commissioners said, no way to prove that it is, indeed, at that location.
Anyone interested in seeing it would not be able to find it, and if by any chance they did, “there’s nothing to see,” Commission Chair Paul Nichols said. He visited the site prior to the meeting and said it took him a half hour to find it, and he only did so because someone from The Sanctuary Golf Club finally assisted him.
For those reasons, the Planning Commissioners said they need more information before passing it on to City Council and unanimously continued the public hearing to an uncertain date.
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