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Community Corner

Congressman Joins Effort to Landmark Montauk Lighthouse

If designated, the Lighthouse would be the eighth National Historic Landmark in Suffolk County.

The Montauk Point Lighthouse could become the next national landmark. U.S. Rep Tim Bishop has sent a letter of support for making the lighthouse the eighth national historic landmark in Suffolk County. The proposal will be considered at a meeting of the national park system advisory board landmarks committee meeting later this month.

“The Lighthouse is an iconic Long Island landmark and deserves to be included on our nation’s list of historic treasurers,” Bishop wrote in a letter to the landmarks program.

The Montauk Historical Society, led by a proposal put forth by Eleanor Ehrhardt of the Montauk Point Lighthouse Committee after the Coast Guard transferred ownership of the site, has  been working to secure national landmark status for the lighthouse.

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East Hampton Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, who has served on the lighthouse board, called the cica-1796 structure a passion of his. Wilkinson said the lighthouse, for a very long time, “was important for our navigation from Europe to New York and has had a tremendous effect on safe travel.”

But Wilkinson also has a personal stake in the property. When they were students in the 1970s, Wilkinson proposed to his wife Patricia at the lighthouse.

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“I drove all the way from Scranton, Pennsylvania, so I could propose to her there,” he said.

Several other national landmarks are located on the East End , including the Jackson Pollock House and Studio and the Thomas Moran House in East Hampton; the First Presbyterian, or Old Whalers, Church, in Sag Harbor, the Fort Corchaug Archeological Site in Southold and the Old House in Cutchogue.

The Montauk Point Lighthouse, authorized by the second Congress in 1792, under President George Washington, was the first lighthouse in New York State and is the fourth oldest active lighthouse in the country. There are 137 steps to the height of the tower, and the light that flashes every five seconds can be seen from 19 nautical miles away.

A new holiday tradition was born in recent years when Wilkinson was the first to recommend the Lighthouse be illuminated during the holiday season. Although it took some time for the board to approve the initiative, today, the supervisor said, “It’s a virtual Christmas card,” not only a thing of great beauty illuminating the night, but inviting “people from all over Long Island to come at Christmastime and see it,” Wilkinson said.

Bishop, whose family has ties to the area dating back to the 1600s, urged for landmark status so the Lighthouse will be preserved. “It is my hope that it will receive the landmark status it deserves so it can endure for generations to come,” he said.

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