New Dorp Lighthouse

Year Built

1856

Cost

$19,124

Type

Square on center of dwelling

Height

80 feet

Location

Staten Island / Lower New York Bay

Automated Year

N/A

First Lit

1856

Lens Type

Second Order Fresnel lens

Fog Signal

None

Year Deactivated

1964

Color

White

Last Keeper - Date

Sidney Z. Gross (1940 – 1944)

Description

The lighthouse is not open to the public and privately owned.

Brief History

•  Keepers had been allowed to use the road through the cemetery, but the authorities in charge of the cemetery rescinded that privilege in 1878.
•  In February 1896, Margaret J. Langston, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Keeper Langston, dropped dead on Staten Island’s Richmond Road while returning to the lighthouse after attending church with her mother at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church.
•  In 1939, a sixth-order range lens was installed, still showing a fixed white light.
•  New Dorp Lighthouse was abandoned and boarded up in 1964 after the range lights were replaced by offshore channel markers.
•  John Vokral, a Staten Island resident, purchased the neglected and vandalized property at auction in 1974 for $32,000.