NEW DORP LIGHT

I’m not sure I have ever photographed the New Dorp Lighthouse in Staten Island; things get fuzzy after 23 years and counting of doing Forgotten New York. The lighthouse is not the easiest in the world to find, as you have to walk to the top of one of Staten Island’s steepest grades on Altamont Street, then left on Beacon Avenue, no doubt named for the lighthouse, up to the end of the dead-end Boyle Street and then right on a lengthy driveway; the lighthouse’s address is officially #25 Boyle. And, you’re not even supposed to do that, as it’s private property; no longer a lighthouse, it’s a private dwelling. In any case, I’ll use photographs from Zillow, which listed it last year and sold it for over $900,000.

The former lighthouse, seen here from a drone, is in a rather isolated section of Staten Island known as Egbertville, west of Moravian Cemetery and south of High Rock Park. Richmond Road is the main artery. Unlike the better-known, and still operational Staten Island Lighthouse in nearby Lighthouse Hill, this lighthouse has been decommissioned for years.

The New Dorp Lighthouse was built in 1856 by Richard Carlow, making it one of the oldest lighthouses in the NYC region. It originally guided ships (all were sailing ships in 1856) through the Swash Channel in Lower New York Bay. The lighthouse was operational for more than a century until it ended service in 1964, after which it remained intact but deteriorating until it was purchased by local John Vokral for $32,000 in 1974, who renovated it as a private residence. It recently sold for almost a million.

There are plenty of other lighthouses in the Staten Island and New Jersey border waters. And, Staten Island is home to the country’s only Lighthouse Museum.

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8/1/22