National Lighthouse Museum
200 The Promenade | St. George | built 1931
Open on the map6 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1965
The Lighthouse Service depot that ran this foundry shuts down
This small building, Building 11, was the foundry of the United States Lighthouse Service General Depot. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the depot supplied every lighthouse in the service's third district, which ran from Albany to the Massachusetts border and south to Sandy Hook. As new technology left lighthouses largely obsolete, the depot had closed by 1965.
Source: atlasobscura.com
- 1998
The St. George Coast Guard Station is chosen for a national lighthouse museum
In 1998 the American Lighthouse Coordinating Committee sought proposals from around the country for a National Lighthouse Center and Museum. It picked the St. George Coast Guard Station, a city landmark on the National Register, grounds once occupied by both the Staten Island quarantine and the New York Marine Hospital.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2001
The museum gets a state charter but cannot raise the money to open
The New York State Board of Regents chartered the National Lighthouse Center and Museum on November 9, 2001. Fundraising lagged badly: two years into a five-year drive, it had collected only 2 percent of the $5 million needed to begin operating, and the opening slipped from 2001 to 2003.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
The museum's board dissolves as costs climb to $15 million
The board was disbanded in 2009. Officials blamed slow giving after the September 11 attacks and a budget that had grown to $15 million. By then the city's Economic Development Corporation had already put $8 million into stabilizing the old Coast Guard Station buildings.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2013
John Catsimatidis donates $105,000 and the city offers the foundry for $1 a year
Businessman John Catsimatidis gave $105,000 toward the museum in 2013, and its board was brought back together that year. The Economic Development Corporation told the board that if it raised $350,000, the city would rent it the old foundry for $1 per year.
“In 2013, John Catsimatidis donated $105,000 toward the museum.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
The National Lighthouse Museum finally opens in the old foundry
The museum officially opened in 2015 inside the depot's former Foundry Building; the depot later became the Staten Island Coast Guard Station. It is devoted to the history of lighthouses and the keepers who ran them.
“Dedicated to the history of lighthouses and their keepers, it officially opened in 2015.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
Nearby
- Old Administration Building, Third District Lighthouse Depot5B Borough Place | 5 entries
- Staten Island Borough Hall10 Richmond Terrace | 6 entries
- St. George Theatre19 Hyatt Street | 8 entries
- Richmond County Courthouse18 Richmond Terrace | 6 entries
- Brighton Heights Reformed Church320 St Marks Place | 2 entries
- Empire Outlets35B Richmond Terrace | 4 entries