Port Sanilac Light placement and the unique shape were dictated by and created because of budgetary constraints (Congress appropriated only half the money requested). Designed by Eleventh District Engineer Captain Charles E. L. B. Davis, the design has been called "both unique and architecturally significant in its elegance." The tower is white with a red roof. This "handsome" lighthouse shares its design with only one other, Ile Aux Galets, also known as Skilligallee Island Light, on Lake Michigan. The Port Sanilac Light tower is capped with a cast iron lantern room, which still houses a fourth order Fresnel lens manufactured by Barbier and
Sèvres pot-pourri vase in the shape of a ship a dark blue ground colour with caillouté decoration, trellis-work and scrolls in gold. The two panels were probably painted by André-Vincent Vielliard. The front panel shows peasants seated around a table outside a tavern. This scene was adapted from a detail of the painting Fête de Village by David Teniers the Younger. Baron Ferdinand purchased this vase from the collection of the 5th Earl Spencer. The ground colour of the third ship vase is a rare ‘petit vert’ which was only produced for a short time around 1760. It is believed to have been purchased from a ‘Mrs Yorke of