Linda’s Monday Morning Moaning’s:
FYI, for those individuals who are contemplating researching, really any type of topic, never, never allow your enthusiasm and excitement over a great find, to blind you to the fact, you are on the path to furthering something you CAN NOT USE! As I have mentioned I am researching another book for Arcadia’s ‘Postcards of America Series’ on the Lights of the Great Lakes, I am pretty familiar with our lights in Michigan, but learning about the other states that have a stake in having lights on the Great Lakes, and is still a some what unfamiliar territory for me.
I now refer you to the ‘Old Field Point Lighthouse’ on what I thought was Lake Ontario. It’s not! I had purchased two separate postcards of this lighthouse, and well on my way for more, because I let my excitement get the better of me and didn’t double check my sources. I was so taken by the vintage fieldstone look, I failed to realize, that yes, this is in New York, a state that borders Lake Ontario, but this lighthouse is on the north shore of Long Island, and no amount of finagling could it be near Lake Ontario.
Because I liked it so much I decided to tell you about this today, anyway. The Old Field Point Light is located on the northern tip of Old Field, and dates back to 1823. It was built by the United States government for $2,500., The light would be totally finished in 1824 for an additional $1,500. A three-acre parcel was purchased from Samuel Ludlow Thompson and Ruth Thompson for $600. with property boundaries being defined by the high water mark, a fence and a cherry tree. The final constructions cost came to $3,999.25, with the remaining severity-five cents being put into the surplus fund.
It’s first light came from nine whale oil lamps and was magnified by a large glass reflector. The plaster octagonal stone tower stood thirty feet tall, and there was a separate one-and-a-half story, five room keepers dwelling located inland from the tower. Although the first tower is gone, the original keeper’s house is still standing on the east side of the currant lighthouse. A fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed in the tower’s lantern room in 1855, replacing the array of nine lamps previously used, that consumed around 350 gallons of oil each year.
The currant Old Field Lighthouse was finished in 1869, after congress provided additional funds for its construction. The two story granite structure stands roughly fifty feet tall with walls two feet thick. The twenty-eight-foot cast-iron tower is square with beveled edges and a circular lantern room, that houses the original Fresnel lens. It’s stone church like architecture, is in the Victorian-Gothic Revival style.
The Old Field Light was deactivated in 1933, having been replaced with a beacon on top of a nearby steel tower. The property was given to the town of Old Field for a public park. A modern beacon, now maintained by the Coast Guide, was placed back in the lantern room in 1991, and the keeper’s house from the 1824 lighthouse has served as the village hall since 1963.
For me these lovely old structures have such a great meaning. The romance they bring to mind of a long ago past. Not to speak of the keepers and their families, the loneness, as most of these lights were far from anything to give help to these families. They were there to help others out at sea at all costs.
On that ‘wee note’ till next week.
Thank you to the http://www.lighthousefriends.com for all the great work they do in preserving these lights so that the rest of us can learn about them. ‘American Lighthouses’ by Bruce and Cheryl Shelton-Roberts
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Linda Osborne Cynowa 