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Officially established in 1856 on the south side of Staten Island, New York, the Elm Tree Lighthouse functioned as the front-range lighthouse to the nearby New Dorp Lighthouse that was located about one-and-a-half miles inland. The two lighthouses marked the Swash Channel and were part of three sets of different range lights that had been built to mark shipping channels to New York Bay.
Before the Elm Tree Lighthouse was built, early sailors in New York Harbor had used a large Elm Tree as a landmark while navigating off Staten Island. When the lighthouse was built, it was named in honor of the Elm Tree.
In 1939, it was decided that the wooden Elm Tree Light tower was too expensive to maintain, and it was replaced by a 65-foot-tall ugly concrete tower, which also functioned as an aviation beacon to service Miller Air Field, which had been built there in November of 1919.
In 1969, Miller Air Field was abandoned, and in 1972 the land was turned over to the National Park Service to be part of Staten Island Unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area. The old concrete tower, which had been discontinued as a lighthouse in 1964, still stands.
This story appeared in the
May/Jun 2020 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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