Lighthouse Larry

ISLAMORADA, Florida Keys — An Islamorada-based artist, known locally as “Lighthouse Larry,” has fashioned his passion for lighthouses into creating exact scale replicas of historical beacons off the Florida Keys. Born in Chicago, Larry Herlth, has lived nearly all his life in the Keys.

As a kid in the Keys, he was amazed at a local lobster fisherman’s ability to carve a dolphin from coral rock, yet discovered he too was adept at the craft. Soon, people were asking him to carve coral rock dolphins.  Larry pays great attention to detail, recreating each feature of the original to scale.

 “I do want to bring attention to the actual beauty of these lighthouses in their design and incredible architecture and strength,” Herlth said. “They have held up to the wind, the oceans for 160 years, through many hurricanes, and they are still standing — and hopefully will always be standing.”

When he returned to Islamorada after school, he further developed his aptitude for sketching and creating sculptures in stone and coral rock. But it was a request from a friend to build a dock jetty light that inspired Herlth to turn his artistic sights to lighthouses. He first created a replica of Alligator Lighthouse off Islamorada, which dates back to 1873, and his enthusiasm snowballed from there. Lighthouse Larry decided to swim, in his native town of Islamorada, to Alligator Lighthouse and back, alone and self-supported, his friends thought he was crazy. When he then said out loud “every open water swimmer should experience this,” Larry became the anchor to the Swim for Alligator Lighthouse.