Assistant Keepers’ Dwelling / Chronology

At Absecon Lighthouse, a principal keeper and an assistant keeper lived on site with their families when the light was first lit in 1857. An assistant keeper’s dwelling built during the original lighthouse construction was altered inside in 1887 to house two assistant keepers and their families, and exterior changes completed in 1893 gave the two families more space and privacy. In 1891, the Lighthouse Board reported that the assistant keepers were crowded into a building about 25 feet square, lacked privacy, and suffered great inconvenience and discomfort in summer, and it recommended a new dwelling costing $4,000. The assistant keepers’ dwelling was demolished in the 1940s along with the principal keeper’s dwelling. The broader history of Absecon Lighthouse began after years of urging by Jonathan Pitney, when Congress appropriated $35,000 in 1854 for a lighthouse on Absecon Island, the Camden and Atlantic Land Co. transferred the site to the U.S. government on December 5, 1854, and construction began in 1855 under Major Hartman Bache before Lieutenant George Gordon Meade replaced him. An additional $17,436.62 was appropriated in 1856, bringing the final cost to $52,436.62, and the lighthouse was first lit on January 15, 1857, with a first-order Fresnel lens made by Sautter & Cie of Paris and illuminated by Funck’s mineral oil lamps, its beam visible nearly 20 miles at sea. Although the lighthouse stood 1200 feet from the ocean when built, later erosion brought the water to the edge of the grounds until jetties built in the 1870s reversed the process. The first incandescent oil vapor lamps were used in 1910, electricity first powered the beacon on July 1, 1925, and the light was decommissioned and extinguished on July 11, 1933. The lantern was briefly relit in 1954 for Atlantic City’s centennial, a small visitors’ center was built in 1962, Governor Richard Hughes relit the lens on December 31, 1963, for New Jersey’s Tercentenary year, and the lighthouse was placed on New Jersey’s Register of Historic Places on September 11, 1970, and on the National Register of Historic Places on January 25, 1971. In 1988, the Inlet Public/Private Association adopted the lighthouse as its logo, in 1994 it formally adopted the lighthouse and funded a Historic Structure Report that led to restoration, in 1995 Sara Cureton was hired as Executive Director and became the first Lightkeeper since 1933, in 1997 restoration of the tower and reconstruction of the Keeper’s Dwelling began, in 1999 the tower opened to visitors while construction continued, and in 2001 the Keeper’s Dwelling was completed and opened to the public.

Atlantic City, New Jersey · United States