Work on the Harbor of Refuge Breakwater began on May 4, 1897, and quite amazingly, was completed on December 11, 1901. In addition to the 7,950-foot breakwater, a set of ice piers was also constructed across the upper end of the harbor to provide protection from ice descending the bay. The cost for the project was roughly $2.2 million. Being located roughly midway between New York Harbor and the capes of Chesapeake Bay, the safe harbor allowed ships to put to sea in doubtful weather conditions knowing that protection could be found at the Delaware Capes.

1908 Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Left unmarked, the breakwater would present a danger to navigation, so temporary lights were placed on each end of the structure. An 800-pound fog bell and a 30-foot frame tower topped by a lens lantern showing a fixed red light were positioned on the southeastern end of the breakwater, while at the opposite end a beacon with the same characteristic was mounted atop a post. Both lights were exhibited for the first time on January 1, 1902.

While funding was being secured for a permanent lighthouse, a powerful storm packing wind gusts of 85 miles per hour struck the breakwater in September of 1903 and swept away the fog bell and frame tower. The wooden schooner Hattie A. Marsh was riding out the storm in the harbor of refuge when it slipped its anchors and was dashed against the stone breakwater. Another vessel quickly came to the rescue and saved two of the crew, but the captain, Joseph Mehaffey, and four sailors were lost. This incident should have been sufficient evidence that a stout and durable lighthouse was required at this exposed location, 1.25 miles north of the Delaware Breakwater.

A new fog bell and a steel tower were placed on the breakwater the following spring to replace those swept away by the storm. While plans were being prepared for the Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse, the proposed brick superstructure was replaced, for some inexplicable reason, by a frame structure. Someone obviously had not learned the lesson of the Three Little Pigs.

In June of 1907, excavation work began on the breakwater to provide a pit for the lighthouse’s concrete foundation. Seventeen months later the lighthouse was completed at a cost of $49,941, and the subsequent Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board contained the following detailed description of the station.

On November 20, 1908, a fourth-order, incandescent oil-vapor light, illuminating the entire horizon, and flashing white every 12 seconds, was established in the white, hexagonal, three-story frame structure, with lead-colored trimmings, resting on a brown cylindrical iron foundation, located on the southerly end of the Harbor of Refuge Breakwater, southwesterly side of the entrance to Delaware Bay. The foundation of this lighthouse, completed in 1907, consists of a concrete block 40 feet in diameter and 15 feet 6 inches high, resting upon the enrockment of the breakwater. The superstructure consists of a center column of iron, a basement 32 feet in diameter of two courses of iron plates, and a hexagonal frame superstructure from the basement to the lantern. The fog-signal is a first class siren operated by compressed air.

1926 Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Years of abuse took their toll on the lighthouse, and on April 12, 1926, Keeper Taylor extinguished the tower’s light for the final time, as a work crew arrived to dismantle the structure. In its place, a new three-story cast-iron tower, topped by a circular watchroom and lantern room of diminishing diameter, was erected by the middle of the following November. Keeper Taylor took up residence in the new dwelling, and just three years later, he had another remarkable entry for the logbook.
April 14 – 16, 1929: “It was blowing about 78 mph, it was pretty bad on Monday night 15th. The lighthouse shook bad. We had a job to keep the light working, the house shook so. What we need is stone put on the northeast side to break the sea up before it hits the house for we know what the sea does around here.”

Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse was automated in December 1973, when its final crew of Coast Guardsmen left the station. Angelo Rigazio was a member of the final crew and joined the Coast Guard in 1970 after he was drafted to serve in Vietnam. When he was asked why he had joined the Coast Guard, Rigazio replied "because I can swim better than I can duck bullets." Rigazio doesn't regret his time at Harbor of Refuge, though he thought he had made someone mad to be stuck at the isolated station. Winters were bad, but summers, with sunsets, fishing, and visitors, were enjoyable.

Fishermen would sometimes ask if they could fish off the breakwater, and the crew didn't have any problem with that, especially when a six-pack of beer, which was banned at the lighthouse, was left behind. Rigazio would remove one can to make it a five-pack, and lower it into the lighthouse's 4,000-gallon fresh-water tank. "We'd have a hook," Rigazio explains. "We'd open the lid up, fish around with the hook and pull up a five pack. And that's how we kept our beer cold. And out of sight out of mind." Angelo Rigazio has served as president of The Delaware Bay Lighthouse Keepers and Friends Association and provides commentary on lighthouse boat tours offered by the organization.

In the years after automation, Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse received only periodic maintenance, and then only the most essential repairs were made. The lighthouse did receive a major overhaul in 1998-1999, when the station’s exterior metalwork and concrete foundation were rehabilitated at a cost of roughly a quarter million dollars.

On April 1, 2002, the non-profit Delaware River and Bay Lighthouse Foundation (DRBLHF) signed a 20-year least on the Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse with the Coast Guard. Just over a year later, on June 21, 2003, the lighthouse received its first tour group, whose members were allowed a rare glimpse into an offshore lighthouse. The ambitious foundation became the official owners of the lighthouse in 2004, when the tower was transferred to DBRLHF under the guidelines of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. Seasonal tours of the lighthouse are offered by DBRLHF each year.

The Harbor of Refuge Lighthouse may be endangered due to the poor condition of the breakwater on which it rests. In 2007, Congress appropriated $340,000 so the Army Corps of Engineers could conduct a detailed study of the damage and recommend how to stabilize and repair the breakwater. Through the efforts of DBRLHF, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a contract for nearly $3 million in repairs to the 110-year old Harbor of Refuge Breakwater wall under and near the lighthouse. Work was carried out in 2011.

Photo Gallery: 1

References

1. Guiding Lights of the Delaware River & Bay, Jim Gowdy and Kim Ruth, 1999.
2. Lighthouses of New Jersey and Delaware, Bob Trapani, Jr., 2005.
3. "The last keeper of the Harbor Refuge Lighthouse now helps conduct boat tours to the site," David Simpson, pressofAtlanticCity.com, July 23, 2010.