This old lighthouse was built in 1872 at the tip of the Bolivar Penninsula, the entrance into the ports of Galveston and Houston. The original Bolivar Light was built in 1852 and then dismantled by Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. This replacement, built of iron plate, operated for sixty years, going dark in 1933. It is one of only two iron lighthouses surviving on the Texas coast.

Today, the paint on what was, at one time, a classic red and white striped lighthouse has completely worn away, and the old iron tower is now completely black.