The day started out by leaving the house at 8AM to catch a boat out of Port Washington (about 45 or so minutes from my house). The boat took us out to the first-ever public tour of the offshore Execution Rocks Lighthouse. This is one of my favorite lighthouses, and one that I had suggested as a possible project to my board of directors at the LI Lighthouse Society when I was the organization's president. When it was made available for acquisition last year, no local groups applied for it and it was awarded to a new group from Philadelphia called Historically Significant Structures. I had had a conversation or two with its president, Craig Morrison, a couple of years ago or so, but nothing big.
Now that they have ownership of the lighthouse (SEE NOTE 1), they are seeking ways to assemble a board and get the project underway. They estimate five years and about a million-and-a-half dollars. I don't agree with those numbers, but it is their project. Anyway...
Let me interject a little history about this light station:
The Execution Rocks were a series of rocks just under the surface in the middle of the western end of the Long Island Sound, just north of Sands Point. This has long been a very busy area for shipping, and still is. There is a legend that the name came from a British practice pf chaining revolutionaries to the rocks at low tide and letting the tide drown them as a sort of cautionary tale to the colonists. This tale has less frequently been told as that of the natives doing the same to the colonists. Both tales are folklore. As I more fully prove in my book on Long Island lighthouses (by quoting eminent local figures of the time), the rocks were given their name because they claimed many ships.
A lighthouse was built at Sands Point in 1809 (the fourth lighthouse to be built on Long Island, after Montauk Point -- 1796, Eatons Neck - 1799, and Little Gull Island - 1806). Part of its job was to warn people about the Execution Rocks, but that was tough to do from land, especially with the inferior lighting apparatus that was standard in the US at that time.
A bouy was set at Execution Rocks in 1827, and by 1837 there was talk of trying to establish a lightship on site. As was common in the 1820-1852 period of American lighthouse administration, there was plenty of talk and confusion for years, but no contract awarded until 1847. The law at the time demanded that the contract go to the lowest bidder, a man named Thomas Butler. After the contract was awarded, it was learned that Butler lacked the skills and experience necessary to do the project. Most of the job was subsequently done by subcontractors, and the lighthouse was put into service in 1850. Even after completion, the station had problems, the most notable of which was probably the nasty waters of the Long Island Sound washing away the rocks of the artificial island that had been built for the lighthouse. This would be an ongoing problem.
When the white tower (it did not get its brown stripe until 1899) was first built, there were no other buildings on site. The light was intended to be maintained by the keepers at Sands Point. This worked for a while, but it was eventually decided that this lighthouse would be better served by an on-site keeper. After the War Between The States, when many light stations in the Third District (essentially, Rhode Island, Connecticut, southern New York and northern New Jersey) were being repaired or rebuilt, Execution Rocks received a keepers' dwelling. A fog signal building was later added (it burned down in 1918 and was rebuilt in 1920) and, eventually, radio equipment was also put on site.
The station was manned until 1979, when it was automated. This meant that the site was pretty much abandoned, aside from occasional maintenance visits by Coast Guard personnel. As with any abandoned building, time took its toll (as you can see in the photos I have posted on MySpace).
Back to the present:
I guess there were about 35 of us on the first tour (SEE NOTE 2). We had access to the entire island and the entire keepers' dwelling and tower (except for the dwelling's attic). With the safety issues at hand in a situation like that (lead, asbestos, falling plaster, etc. etc.), you don't usually get that kind of access.
The interior of the tower was much roomier than I had expected. The original stairs and landings are long gone, replaced by steel stairs and steel-grate landings supprted by steel I-beams. It looks kind of ad hoc, but at least the tower is still there. Getting into the lantern room and out onto the catwalk is tricky in this lighthouse. It was not at all easy, nor was the trip back into the lantern room and down the ladder. This is going to be a primary safety concern at this site. The view from the catwalk, which is in very good shape, was nice. You can see the Manhattan skyline, the Throgs Neck and Whitestone bridges, Long Island's fabled Gold Coast, historic Hart Island, the Sands Point lighthouse, and much more. Very cool.
We spent more than an hour on site. I went through the keepers' quarters, climbed the tower, and looked at various aspects of the current condition of the station. I had plenty of thoughts about the stabilization of the site, its restoration, its future use, public access, environmental impacts, and all that, which I will share with the president and treasurer (I believe they are the only two current board members for the orgaqnization at this early point) via e-mail this week. They have enthusiasm, which is good, and some experience with grant-writing, which is very good. They will need to build a strong board of directors (I am definitely saying no to that one) and a solid volunteer corps (which I will be willing to help out with) if they are to make any real progress.
These sorts of projects usually start out with a bang: Excited people, some early donations, press copverage, etc., but can fizzle when the real world steps in with logistical problems, fundraising difficulties, environmental considerations (there are birds nesting on the island, and one egg got stepped on while we were on the island), complaining neighbors, insurance issues, growing disillusionment, etc.. This lighthouse is too historically important for this project to fail, so I am going to see what I can do to help out (probably offer to be their historian and main tour guide, and see what I can do spread the word). The most important thing that they need to do, though, is build a board of directors that can and will raise serious money. If the money is raised, the rest can happen. No money, no lighthouse.
Diane and I took lots of photos, and I took some helmetcam video. I am still on a learning curve with the audio on that camera, so I added a live Juke House soundtrack to the video I posted on MySpace. I am still digesting the sites and discussions of the day, and will probably talk about this more as time goes on.
I had planned on writing about the afternoon and evening of the 4th, but it is late and this is already way too long. I'll try to add that tomorrow.
XXX
NOTE 1: The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 set specific guidelines for stewardship of historic lighthouses that were to be transferred out of government ownership, so don't start scheming to get yourself a lighthouse and make it your home. It doesn't work that way.
NOTE 2: In the years Diane and I spent in the "lighthouse business," we made the acquaintance of lots of lighthouse aficionados, as well as preservationists and historians. I expected to see some of the "usuals" on this trip, but only met one man that I had previously met in my life as a lighthouse czar.
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