Esopus Meadows Lighthouse

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by Zhemyna Jurate

Looking on from the outside, you might call her well-preserved for a 133-year-old retiree. In recent years the Maid of the Meadows has gotten a facelift, and her spreading bottom has had a substantial nip-and-tuck job; but alas, her beauty is still only skin deep.

Built in 1871 on the site of an older light­house, in active operation until 1965-and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1979, the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse was in sorry shape indeed until the Commission began the long, laborious process of restoration in the late ‘90s.

Its light and fog bell had long been taken down, its chimney fallen over in a storm. The 40 foot long wood pilings on which it was built had settled into the soft riverbed, knocking its granite-faced pier so far askew that one corner of the building sat a foot and a half higher than its diagonal opposite and a first-floor support beam had been pulled out of the sill plate. The once-graceful structure’s leaky mansard roof and boarded-up windows failed to keep out harsh weather; interior structural members were rotting and plaster walls were crumbling. Ornamental flourishes, like turned stair railing spindles, had been ripped out by vandals.

But in 1990 a handful of local citizens and river people joined forces to save the Maid; a photo tour on the group’s website makes it clear that most of the progress made so far has been accomplished on a bare-bones budget with volunteer labor and borrowed equipment. By 1998 most of the rotten timbers had been replaced and the building made weather tight In 2000 the clapboard exterior was spruced up with a new coat of paint, and work began on shoring up the sagging foundation with i-beams. The following year the frame was leveled with jacks and winched back into square with “comealongs”. New water tanks and a generator were installed in the basement, and the tower has finally been relit - a working lighthouse once more.

It’s come a long way from its nadir of neglect, but the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse still needs a tremendous amount of interior repaired restoration of its historic decor. The granite base needs to be recapped and plumbing and electrical work must be done. To help underwrite reconstruction efforts for the 2004 building season, the folks at the Commission have put out a last-minute call for donations of products, services, lo­cal arts and crafts and gift certificates.