Frying Pan Tower
WILMINGTON, N.C. – A former Coast Guard light station that has been transformed into an off-the-grid hotel is up for sale.
The Frying Pan Tower is located approximately 34 miles off the coast of North Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean.
The tower was built in 1964 to help ships skirt Frying Pan Shoals, a nearby shallow area infamous for shipwrecks.
About 20 Coast Guard cadets lived at the tower full-time during the 1960s and ’70s. But the light station was automated in 1979, and the invention of GPS eventually made the tower obsolete.
In 2010, a North Carolina software engineer purchased the tower from a government surplus sale for just $85,000. Since then, the tower has been restored and transformed into an off-the-grid destination hotel accessible only by boat or helicopter.
The tower offers eight ocean-facing rooms with five twin beds and three queen beds for visitors to take a weekend away. It has high-speed internet, hot and cold running purified rainwater, solar and wind-energy, backup generators, security cameras and the ability to withstand powerful hurricanes like Sandy, Arthur and Matthew!
The current owner of the tower has listed it for auction. The current bid stands at $45,454.45!
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