The first lantern at the lighthouse station was lit in 1840. It was placed in the wall of a private house. Gradually, ship traffic increased sharply, and in 1877 the new lighthouse was completed. The lighthouse was placed in a bay window on the second floor, above the lighthouse keeper's residence. When the lighthouse became electric in 1919, the lantern was moved up to a new lantern house, and since then, Filtvet lighthouse has looked like it does today. For more than a hundred years, lighthouse keepers lived here who made sure that the light never went out.
One of the more famous lighthouse keepers was Thomas Neumann. He came here in 1895, after a long career as skipper of several sailing ships. At that time, he was already 68 years old, and this was to be his retirement job. He moved into the lighthouse keeper's house with his wife Caroline. He was so happy that he protested when the lighthouse service wanted to replace him at the age of 82. He argued that it would be difficult to get a new job, as old as he had become. The case was solved by him receiving a small pension from the state, which was quite unusual at the time.
The automation of Norwegian lighthouses started in the 1980s, and since 1985 no people have lived in Filtvet lighthouse. But there is still a functioning lighthouse here, now in the form of a concrete column at the sea's edge.