Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse was built in 1875 as part of a longer history of lighthouse development that included the first light on the Great Lakes at the mouth of the Niagara River in 1781, federal responsibility for lighthouses beginning in 1789, and the establishment of the Lighthouse Board in 1850 with upgrading begun. In 1885 its kerosene lamp was replaced by a 500 watt electric lamp powered by a coal-steam generator. By 1935 the Coast Guard had assumed ownership, built a fog horn, enlarged the keeper's quarters, and later made changes that reflected a more reserved, utilitarian approach, replacing the cut stone summer kitchen with a brick two-story addition and removing decorative panels and trim from the gables as well as ornate chimney caps and finials. In 1984 the lighthouse was turned over to the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. Its design features include a globe vent ball with pedestal and lightning spike, a standing seam copper roof, ornate iron rails, a patterned steel plate deck and steel armored barrel, a cut stone crown, cut stone facing with quoined corners, limestone shipped from Chaumont, decorative cast iron steps and rail cast in sections and bolted together, and keeper's quarters designed in High Victorian Gothic style. More broadly, lighthouse architecture rose from simple and austere beginnings to grand style under the Lighthouse Service, then shifted to a more reserved utilitarian design under Coast Guard control.