Cracking the Case: An Integrative Multi-Method Approach to Damage Investigation in the Morris Island Lighthouse

Abstract

Heritage structures contribute significant historical and cultural value to their communities and the broader world but are often difficult to assess and preserve due to constraints on access and resources. The Morris Island Lighthouse is a masonry tower and cultural heritage structure (CHS) in Charleston, SC, that has sustained unrepaired damage from myriad sources that are challenging to tease apart. Because of the lighthouse's existing yet understudied structural health monitoring (SHM) system and archival record, the structure lends itself to a multi-faceted approach to CHS study. Using the Morris Island Lighthouse, a methodology was created that integrates long-term SHM data, numerical modeling, archival research, and site observation for tracing damage in support of preservation. Synthesizing these approaches resulted in substantiating the claim that corrosion has driven the formation and widening of cracks in the lighthouse, which is novel in the literature. By the same practice, corrosion was not found to be responsible for recent changes in tower inclination.