National Lighthouse Museum

The Site Today

The property is approximately 10 acres in area, including an 850 foot pier and 56,200 sq. ft. of floor area within the existing buildings as well as 6,015 sq. ft. of underground vaults. In addition, there is another 48,000 sq. ft. of roof area over the adjacent Ferry Maintenance Building that may be available as a roof garden and outdoor exhibit area.

Of the six major buildings on the site, four are on the National Register of Historic Places. One of these, the US Lighthouse Service Administration Building, is also a designated New York City Landmark. The buildings are all deteriorated and badly in need of repair. The vaults are granite masonry and are in good condition.

The immediate neighborhood, St. George, is the government center for the island with Borough Hall and the County Courthouse (both City Landmark buildings), the Post Office, Library and a small business and office center across the street from the depot. The surrounding residential NYC Landmark District contains many Victorian homes built in the mid to late Nineteenth Century.

Recently, a new park and esplanade has been constructed that links the site to the ferry terminal on the north and also connects to the Bay Street Landing Esplanade on the south. The Esplanade is part of a plan to create a public access way along the North Shore waterfront from the Gateways National Recreation Area (Ft. Wadsworth) at the mouth of the harbor to Snug Harbor Cultural Center on the Kill Van Kull.

This is an open site with access at several points. Exhibits may include a lighthouse on the plaza and a lightship on the pier. Consequently, instead of having a controlled flow for visitors, the museum spaces can be organized more informally. Visitors may receive a "pass" that will take them into different areas and out on to the pier. Each area has its own attractions and visitors may wander from one to the other as they wish. The pass may also be extended to include a boat tour and/or access to other museums in the area.

Although the initial phase of the museum will involve only one of the historic buildings, the entire site is very important in terms of lighthouse history. Below is a description of the existing buildings and grounds.

The Vaults
National Register of Historic Places.
The old storage vaults are built into the hillside behind the Barracks building and are not immediately noticeable. They were most probably built in the mid 1870's, when the depot was experimenting with alternative lighthouse fuels to replace the costly whale oil, and safe storage was needed for the volatile fuels. They are surrounded by the hill to the rear of the site, and have thick front walls with metal vault doors. Five of the vaults are 21 feet wide and 51 feet long, with vaulted ceilings about 13 feet high. A sixth vault is about half the size of the others.

The Barrack
National Register of Historic Places. Building #6

This four-story brick building is the oldest building at the lighthouse depot, built in 1864, just two years after the Lighthouse Establishment acquired the land to establish the U.S. Lighthouse Establishment's "Super depot". Originally a warehouse, it was converted to a barrack by the Coast Guard in the 1940's. A Greek Revival building, popular in the mid 19th century, it is constructed of brick exterior walls above first floor sandstone walls, and wood floors and interior walls. It will require expensive interior restoration.

Laboratory
Building #5
This is a one-story brick building located between the barrack and vaults was used as a laboratory by engineers at the lighthouse depot to test fuels and to experiment with lamp design.

Administration Building
National Register of Historic Places, New York City Landmark Building #7
This strikingly beautiful building was built in 1869 as the offices of the Superintendent and Engineer of the Lighthouse Depot and their staffs. A Second French Empire style building, it originally consisted of only the center section. Around the turn of the century the wings were added, as well as the space behind the building, filling in between the wings.

Old Lamp Shop
National Register of Historic Places Building #8
Built in 1868, the old lamp shop is similar to the barrack building (building #6) in its exterior appearance, but differs considerably inside. The lamp shop was constructed as a place to assemble and repair lighthouse lenses, the largest of which stand nearly 18 feet tall and weigh thousands of pounds. Floors are concrete strengthened with steel beams and steel columns are used for support between floors. The first floor is double height over a portion of the floor with semi-circular bays built in so that the huge lenses could be assembled and worked on from two levels. Two story high windows adorn the south face of the building to provide light to the workshop.

New Lamp Shop
Building #10
Around 1900, much of the work at the depot centered on lighthouse lamps and lenses. The depot outgrew its lamp shop, and in 1907 the new lamp shop was completed. It is a multi-purpose building, with space for blacksmith, tin-smith, and other workshops, storage rooms, and an exterior bay with three large doors in the rear of the building from which to load supplies to ship out on lighthouse tenders. This building will house the initial phase of the lighthouse museum.

Machine Shop
Building #11
This single story, single-span Dutch-gabled building was built in 1912 as a foundry, where lightship anchors, chain, buoys, and parts for lighthouse fabrication were made. After foundry began to be contracted out, the building was used as a lighthouse depot machine shop. It has an exposed steel angle truss system with a clerestory running the length of the building from north to south. We hope that the machine shop will be opened as a restaurant to serve museum patrons as well as tourists and local residents.

The Plaza
The plaza was formed as one of the results of the Coast Guard Base Task force that was undertaken to save the remaining depot buildings in the early 1990's. It links the ferry terminal and the walkway to Bay Street through the Lighthouse Depot site to the waterway esplanade to the south of the depot. With trees, bushes, tables, chairs and benches, it comprises an attractive and comfortable surrounding to the museum site. In future years we hope to return the lighthouse, once erected on the Lighthouse Depot grounds to test new lighthouse fuels and equipment, back to the plaza as a museum exhibit.

The Pier
The pier projects out into the harbor some 850 feet from the main courtyard. From its deck one can take in a panoramic view of the entire city from the Verrazano Bridge past the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty, and Robbins Reef Lighthouse to the Jersey hills. Old photographs show lightships and lighthouse tenders tied up at the pier, with buoys and supplies ready to load on the tenders. Plans are to moor the museum's lightship here for museum visitation. The pier may also be used as a stop for a future New York Harbor boat tour.