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The United States Department of Homeland Security is spending $1.5 million to stabilize the 1870 lighthouse that is located in Gardiners Bay, in Long Island Sound, near Orient, New York.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the restoration work was done in compliance with the New York State Historic Preservation Office in a manner consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.
The lighthouse was automated in 1978 and left abandoned to the elements, and it has been deteriorating ever since. Ownership of the lighthouse was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1981, which operates an animal disease research center on the island.
In 1994, its 4th order Fresnel lens was rescued from the lantern and is now on display at the East End Seaport Museum in Greenport, New York. In 2000, in an effort to stop erosion that was threatening the lighthouse, the nonprofit East End Lighthouses raised money to have 15,000 tons of rocks and boulders brought to the island to build up the shoreline and stop further erosion.
The island and the lighthouse are closed to the public and will remain so, even after the restoration.
This story appeared in the
May/Jun 2023 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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