Today, a quiet residential neighborhood extends up the hill to the lighthouse from the south, but when it was built the Moravian Cemetery on its east side was its only neighbor, with the station otherwise surrounded by rugged forest.

New Dorp Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

The government’s right-of-way to the lighthouse was a tiny path leading through the trees, not even big enough for a horse and wagon. Keepers had been allowed to use the road through the cemetery, but the trustees rescinded their permission in 1878 as negotiations to acquire the land covered by the government’s right-of-way for cemetery expansion had become deadlocked. For the next eleven years, Keeper John Langston had to carry supplies to the station in his arms or on horseback. Finally, the government agreed to cede its right-of-way property to the cemetery in exchange for access to its road.

On August 31 of 1852, Congress appropriated $30,000 for the construction of New Dorp Lighthouse and Elm Tree Light to serve as range lights to mark Swash Channel. Both of these structures were contracted to Richard Carlow, who also built the similar Chapel Hill and Point Comfort Range Lights in New Jersey around the same time. When sailing through Swash Channel, mariners were instructed to bring the range lights “in one” and steer towards then until the lights at Chapel Hill came into view. This second pair of lights would then safely guide the vessel past West Bank.

The original beacon at New Dorp was a second-order range lens showing a fixed red light, and John B. Fountain was its first keeper. In 1891, the light was changed to fixed white. The light source was changed from oil to incandescent oil vapor in 1907, greatly increasing the intensity of the light. In 1939, a sixth-order range lens was installed, still showing a fixed white light. At one time, there was a hole cut in the western side of the tower. It may have been there so keepers could see whether the Staten Island Lighthouse was lit.

The New Dorp Lighthouse was abandoned and boarded up in 1964. The neglected and vandalized property was put up for auction in 1974, and purchased by a Staten Island resident named John Vokral for $32,000. It took a lot of work for the new owner to restore the tower. In his words, he “sanded and painted every square inch of the clapboard himself, and hammered every peg into the old floors upstairs – all 1,286 of them.” There is no longer any beacon shining from the old lighthouse, but it has been restored to its original beauty. Besides the lighthouse, and oil house and barn remain on the property.

References

1. Northeast Lights: Lighthouses and Lightships, Rhode Island to Cape May, New Jersey, Robert Bachand, 1989.