Print Size: 18" x 20" (Frame Size: 18" x 20") 1894, Long Island Sound, Long Island, NY
Although a lighthouse was proposed in 1845 for the dangerous Southwest Ledge at the entrance to New Haven Harbor, it was not until 1873 that it became possible to build affordably on the mile-off-shore site. It was one of the first lighthouses in the nation to be built on a cylindrical iron foundation, an innovation by Major George H. Elliott that allowed floating ice to drift around the structure rather than collecting and damaging its foundation. The octagonal cast iron superstructure was built in a Baltimore shipyard with a great 2-story Mansard roof and dormer windows characteristic of the Second Empire style. So successful was the achievement that the “house” was exhibited at the Centennial Exposition of 1976 in Philadelphia, complete with a keeper who lived inside and tended the beacon that blazed every night until the fair closed. In its basic shape and structure, Southwest Ledge Light was the precursor of low-cost off-shore “sparkplug” lighthouses, so called for their distinctive shape, which were prefabricated and lowered by crane onto solid foundations.
