On December 10, 1896, a light came on in a new red brick tower at Ocean Avenue and Beacon Boulevard in Sea Girt, and ships at sea could see it 15 miles out. That makes this December 10 the Sea Girt Lighthouse's 130th birthday. For anyone who has driven past it for years and never gone in, the timing is tight: the volunteers who run the building close their public tour season on Sunday, November 22.

Two Sundays left

Tours run Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m., from mid-April through the Sunday before Thanksgiving, which leaves November 15 and November 22 this year. Visitors enter through the keeper's office, where a replica of the weight that once turned the lens hangs in its shaft, then walk through the family's home and parlor, up the stairs and into the lantern room at the top of the tower. Groups such as school classes and scout troops can book special tours year round by arrangement.

Why it was built

The lighthouse filled a dark gap. The 38 and a half miles of coast between the Twin Lights in Highlands and Barnegat Lighthouse had a stretch in the middle with no beacon, and Sea Girt was built to cover it, also serving as a landmark for Wreck Pond and the old Sea Girt Inlet. Its tower rises 44 feet, and it was the last live-in lighthouse built on the Atlantic Coast, meaning the tower is built into the keeper's house rather than standing apart from it. The light came from a fourth-order Fresnel lens.

A few things most people do not know

  • The first keeper, Abraham Wolf, had been a Union spy in the Civil War, passing himself off as a Confederate prisoner. He was in his early 70s by the end of his tour, then the oldest keeper on active duty in the U.S. Lighthouse Service.
  • When keeper Abram Yates died in 1910, his widow, Harriet Yates, ran the light as acting keeper for two months.
  • In 1921, Sea Girt became the first land-based light station fitted with a radio beacon, one of three transmitters that let ships fix their position by triangulation on the way into New York Harbor.
  • During the Morro Castle disaster in September 1934, the burning liner's crew fixed their position by Sea Girt's beacon, and the lighthouse served as a first aid station during the rescue.
  • The borough bought the building from the federal government in 1956 for $11,000 and used it as the library and community center for more than two decades.

Who keeps it open

By 1980 the building had worn out and was closed. Residents formed the Sea Girt Lighthouse Citizens Committee, went door to door for volunteers and donations, and in 1981 leased the building from the borough for $1 a year, taking on all maintenance. After a full restoration, the lease now runs to 2056, and the lighthouse is in use about 200 days a year for tours, talks, a summer art show and community meetings. Inside are keepers' portraits, the 1903 logbook of keeper Abram Yates, an oil lamp from before electrification, a Fresnel lens similar to the original, and two Morro Castle life jackets.

How to go

The lighthouse is at Ocean Avenue and Beacon Boulevard in Sea Girt, facing the ocean. Sunday tours run 2 to 4 p.m. on November 15 and 22. The committee is a volunteer nonprofit and takes memberships and donations through its website.

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