Site of the Staten Island US Lighthouse Service Depot (New York City, New York)
USA /
New Jersey /
Bayonne /
New York City, New York
World
/ USA
/ New Jersey
/ Bayonne
World / United States / New Jersey
United States Coast Guard, historical layer / disappeared object
Constructed in 1862 by the United States Lighthouse Service (USLHS), the Staten Island Lighthouse Depot was the key manufacturing, storage, supply and maintenance center for the US Lighthouse Service's 3rd District, and area which extended from Sandy Hook in the South, North to Albany and East to the Massachusetts border.
Growing steadily in both size and capability during the late 1800's and early 1900's the Staten Island Depot reached its peak size during and after the First World War. Two shops were constructed to handle the construction and maintenance of Lighthouse and Lightship lenses, most of which weighed thousands of pounds and were several feet tall. Subterranean storage areas, called 'The Vaults' were built to store fuels and other combustible materials for lighthouses, and an entire machine shop and foundry where anchors, sinkers, chains, buoys, and lighthouse structural members were fabricated were all in full operation by the 1920's.
Advancing technology saw many lighthouses automated during the 1920's and 1930's and replaced with more reliable electronic beacons, something which heavily altered the scope of the Depot's mission as much of the upkeep, maintenance and lighthouse keeper supply work it performed was severely curtailed. This tail-off of work was checked by the massive increase in the use of Floating Aids-to-Navigation, or buoys. The Staten Island Depot's foundry became one of the key manufacturing and maintenance point for many of the buoys used along the US East Coast, its quayside spaces became a forest of ocean buoys, channel markers, ice buoys, daymarks and their chains, anchors and sinkers.
With the US Lighthouse Service's merger into the US Coast Guard in 1939, the Staten Island Depot continued its work, but during the Second World War it became more of a shiprepair and outfitting space as many USCG Cutters, buoy tenders and harbor patrol craft called the Depot for wartime repainting, arming and voyage repairs. Following the war, the depot continued this work in addition to its maintenance and fabrication work and by 1950 it was one of the US Coast Guard's major supply depots in the Northeast.
Advancing technology again caught up with the Depot by the 1960's as all lighthouses had been automated with low-maintenance beacons, only two lightships were in service and the amount of Buoy Tenders in USCG service began to drop as each ship became more operationally capable. Budget cuts and consolidation in the late 1960's saw much of the Staten Island Depot's workload sent to the USCG Yard at Curtis Bay, MD and by 1965 the Staten Island Depot was closed. Following a period of inactivity, the land was formally donated by the US Coast Guard to the City of New York in 1978, and several of the pierside buildings were razed to make room for a Staten Island Ferry maintenance facility, which utilized the former depot's piers.
Today several of the original buildings including the machine shop, lamp shops, barracks and administration building still stand onsite, but are in near-ruin. The entire land tract has been eyed by the Economic Development Corporation of New York for razing and re-use for apartment and condominium site, however a non-profit group has been working to secure the land for use as the National Lighthouse Museum in an effort to recognize the site's importance to US Maritime History.
nationallighthousemuseum.org/?p=867
www.lostdestinations.com/lighthse.htm
Growing steadily in both size and capability during the late 1800's and early 1900's the Staten Island Depot reached its peak size during and after the First World War. Two shops were constructed to handle the construction and maintenance of Lighthouse and Lightship lenses, most of which weighed thousands of pounds and were several feet tall. Subterranean storage areas, called 'The Vaults' were built to store fuels and other combustible materials for lighthouses, and an entire machine shop and foundry where anchors, sinkers, chains, buoys, and lighthouse structural members were fabricated were all in full operation by the 1920's.
Advancing technology saw many lighthouses automated during the 1920's and 1930's and replaced with more reliable electronic beacons, something which heavily altered the scope of the Depot's mission as much of the upkeep, maintenance and lighthouse keeper supply work it performed was severely curtailed. This tail-off of work was checked by the massive increase in the use of Floating Aids-to-Navigation, or buoys. The Staten Island Depot's foundry became one of the key manufacturing and maintenance point for many of the buoys used along the US East Coast, its quayside spaces became a forest of ocean buoys, channel markers, ice buoys, daymarks and their chains, anchors and sinkers.
With the US Lighthouse Service's merger into the US Coast Guard in 1939, the Staten Island Depot continued its work, but during the Second World War it became more of a shiprepair and outfitting space as many USCG Cutters, buoy tenders and harbor patrol craft called the Depot for wartime repainting, arming and voyage repairs. Following the war, the depot continued this work in addition to its maintenance and fabrication work and by 1950 it was one of the US Coast Guard's major supply depots in the Northeast.
Advancing technology again caught up with the Depot by the 1960's as all lighthouses had been automated with low-maintenance beacons, only two lightships were in service and the amount of Buoy Tenders in USCG service began to drop as each ship became more operationally capable. Budget cuts and consolidation in the late 1960's saw much of the Staten Island Depot's workload sent to the USCG Yard at Curtis Bay, MD and by 1965 the Staten Island Depot was closed. Following a period of inactivity, the land was formally donated by the US Coast Guard to the City of New York in 1978, and several of the pierside buildings were razed to make room for a Staten Island Ferry maintenance facility, which utilized the former depot's piers.
Today several of the original buildings including the machine shop, lamp shops, barracks and administration building still stand onsite, but are in near-ruin. The entire land tract has been eyed by the Economic Development Corporation of New York for razing and re-use for apartment and condominium site, however a non-profit group has been working to secure the land for use as the National Lighthouse Museum in an effort to recognize the site's importance to US Maritime History.
nationallighthousemuseum.org/?p=867
www.lostdestinations.com/lighthse.htm
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Lighthouse_Service
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 40°38'29"N 74°4'21"W
- US Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook 19 km
- Atlantic City International Airport 138 km
- U.S. Coast Guard Training Center Cape May 201 km
- United States Coast Guard Communication Station, Boston (NMF) 321 km
- US Coast Guard Telecommunications and Information Systems Command (TISCOM) 336 km
- United States Coast Guard Base Portsmouth 463 km
- United States Coast Guard Communications Area Master Station Atlantic, Pungo Transmitter Site 466 km
- Naval Support Activity Northwest Annex 492 km
- US Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City 520 km
- US Coast Guard Station Pascagoula 1740 km
- West New Brighton (Staten Island, New York) 2.8 km
- International Matex Tank Terminal (IMTT) Bayonne 2.9 km
- "The Narrows" 3.2 km
- Sunnyside (Staten Island, NY) 3.4 km
- Upper New York Bay 4 km
- Westerleigh, Castleton Corners 4.8 km
- Southern Continuation of The Palisades 8.7 km
- Hudson County, New Jersey 10 km
- Brooklyn 11 km
- Staten Island 11 km