It was built in 1825 on the southeastern tip of Key Biscayne to mark the reef four miles offshore and guide ships through the Florida Channel and into the leeward side of Key Biscayne. and operated, with interruptions, until 1878, when it was replaced by the Fowey Rocks lighthouse. The lighthouse was put back into use in 1978. The lighthouse marked a reef four miles off-shore, and still marks the Florida Channel, the deepest natural channel into Biscayne Bay. The lighthouse is the oldest building in south Florida.

The construction contract called for a 65-foot-tall tower with walls of solid brick, five feet thick at the bottom tapering to two feet thick at the top. It was later found that the contractor had scrimped on materials and built hollow walls.
The first keeper of the lighthouse was Captain John Dubose, who served for more than ten years. In 1835 a major hurricane struck the island, damaging the lighthouse and the keeper’s house, and putting the island under three feet of water.

Restoration: In 1966, the state bought the 406 acre tract at the tip of Key Biscayne and established a state recreation area. Two years later, the Army Corps of Engineers placed huge stones in the ocean fronting the lighthouse to protect from storm waves and erosion. On July 4, 1978, 100 years after the light was darkened, the Coast Guard reinstalled a light to serve as a navigational aid and to reduce demands for rescue services from boaters running aground while searching for the entrance to the Cape Florida channel at night. It now has a day-mark of white with a black lantern.
Part of the history was submitted by:  Merle Bishop

Being a conservationist, Deering sited the development of the estate portion along the shore to conserve the forests. This portion was to include the villa, formal gardens, recreational amenities, expansive lagoon gardens with new islets, potager and grazing fields, and a village services compound.

The villa was primarily built between 1914 and 1919, while the construction of the extensive elaborate Italian Renaissance gardens and the village continued into 1923. During the World War I years building trades and supplies were difficult to acquire in Florida.
Deering used Vizcaya as his winter residence from 1919 until his death in 1925. The estate’s name is from the northern Spanish Vizcaya Province, in the Basque region along the east Atlantic’s Bay of Biscay, as ‘Vizcaya’ is on the west Atlantic’s Biscayne Bay.
It is sometimes referred to as the “Hearst Castle of the East”.

Nearly 200,000 people visit Vizcaya each year including some of the world's leading dignitaries such as President Reagan, Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth of England and King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Spain. In 1994, the historic Summit of the Americas was held at Vizcaya with President Clinton and the 34 leaders of the Western Hemisphere.