Governor Leads Applause of Years-Long Effort To Restore and Protect Montauk Lighthouse for Future Generations

Governor Kathy Hochul and a platoon of government dignitaries gathered at the Montauk Lighthouse on August 16 to toast the engineering crews, politicians, impassioned historians, and dozens of volunteers and donors who paved the way for the recently completed three-year, multimillion-dollar renovation of the lighthouse tower and expansion of the stone revetment that protects its base.

The governor applauded those who pushed the project forward long before her tenure, despite the daunting logistics and costs of the work — which will have cost upward of $40 million when all the bills are tallied. The hurdles were worth the struggle, she said, to protect a national landmark for generations to come.

“This incredible piece of history that has endured as long as our nation — think about that: This has paralleled our entire nation’s history,” the governor marveled, glancing toward the lighthouse, which was built in 1797 at the behest of President George Washington. “You come here and it reminds you of our great history. … To the people who made this happen, I want to thank all of you for being the keepers of a piece of history.”

Hochul was a guest at the ceremonial ribbon cutting of the newly renovated lighthouse — a project led by the Montauk Historical Society, which owns the lighthouse property itself — at an evening party the Historical Society threw to celebrate the completion of the renovation work.

The renovation work on the lighthouse tower was top to bottom and painstaking. A new iron “cap” at the top of the lighthouse was crafted, to stop top-down leaking of water into the tower. Then, centuries of paint were removed from exterior so that crews could get at the joints between each of the sandstone blocks that make up the 80-foot main section of the tower.

Over two years, masons ground away veins of Portland cement added during “improvement” projects over the years — replacing it all with the same type of lime putty mortar that had been used in the original construction, allowing the structure to “breathe” — before the tower could be repainted, the finishing touches of which were made just weeks ago.

The work was paid for with a state grant and more than $2 million in private donations raised by the historical society.

“It really was the people who resisted the temptation of saying we can’t do it, it’s too expensive, it’s too daunting,” the governor said. “You succeeded, and this is a great testament to all of you and a testament to everyone who is part of the Montauk Lighthouse family.”

“Joe, I never meet a lighthouse keeper before,” she said to Joe Gaviola, a Montauk businessman and the honorary lighthouse keeper, who lives on the lighthouse property. “Could I get your autograph? This is, like, a big deal.”

Earlier in the day, the State Department of Parks and Department of Environmental Conservation had held a dedication for the revetment project, which was led by the DEC and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The project expanded the stone revetment around the base of Turtle Hill, as the headland the lighthouse sits on is known. The revetment was nearly doubled in width and breadth, using more than 60,000 tons of granite boulders to broaden the flanks of the revetment, cutting Turtle Cove about in half, and forming a new seaward bulge at the face of the point with two flattened “benches” to allow foot traffic to cross the front of the revetment.

The new revetment was forecast by the federal engineers who designed it to give the lighthouse at least 50 years of ample protection against sea level rise and worsening storm systems.

At the morning ceremonies, State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. spoke of the many hurdles to getting the revetment project done — not the least of which was a state law that prohibited state funding of erosion control work on land that as not publicly owned.

“We actually had to pass a bill so this project could move forward,” he said, with a dash of incredulity. “When you think of Long Island, this is what you think of. Contrary to popular belief, the symbol of Long Island is not the shopping mall or the traffic jam … it’s the Montauk Point Lighthouse.”

Thiele gave credit to those who had seen the need for staying ahead of the threat of erosion to the bluff — which once extended some 300 feet out past the lighthouse, but was steadily whittled away by storms until the Army Corps finally built the first revetment in 1992, with the cliff edge barely 50 feet from the lighthouse base in places.

Relocating the lighthouse has been determined infeasible — primarily because moving the sandstone structure down the steep hill away from the sea would be essentially impossible without it toppling or needing disassembly — so the revetment represents the first and last line of defense for the light’s survival through its third century in service.

“This goes back a long way — I don’t how many years ago it was that Dick White came into my office with regard to this project,” Thiele said, nodding to Richard White, the longtime chairman of the Montauk Historical Society’s lighthouse committee. “I know how much work went into this by the Montauk Historical Society.

“My congratulations today is to all of you,” he added with a tip of the cap to the representatives from various state agencies, the federal engineers and the construction crews that conducted the work, “but especially to the Historical Society. You made this happen.”