The lower light was a wooden structure that could be moved according to differing tides and shifting sands to remain aligned to the upper light, which was a permanent brick building. By the start of the 19th century each lighthouse was equipped with a single 3 ft-diameter reflector, built to Hutchinson's design.

Both of these structures were rebuilt a century later, and in 1865 new lenses (a pair of fourth-order fixed optics)