National Lighthouse Museum Educational Resource Center

Lighthouse service depot office building

The National Lighthouse Museum is a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

St. George, Staten Island St. George is a neighborhood on the northeastern tip of Staten Island in New York City, along the waterfront where the Kill Van Kull enters Upper New York Bay. It is the most densely developed neighborhood on Staten Island, and the location of th ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, United States, that is dedicated to the history of

lighthouses A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark ...

and their keepers. It officially opened in 2015. The museum is located within the former Foundry Building of the

United States Lighthouse Service The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the United States Government and the general lighthouse authority for the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 as the successor of th ...

General Depot, later the Staten Island Coast Guard Station.

Site selection and opening

The American Lighthouse Coordinating Committee (ALCC) issued a nationwide Request for Proposals (RFP) for a National Lighthouse Center and Museum in 1998. The site selected was the St. George Coast Guard Station, a

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

listing and a city landmark, and the former location of the New York Marine Hospital and the

Staten Island Quarantine War The Staten Island Quarantine War was a series of attacks on the New York Marine Hospital in Staten Island—known as "the Quarantine" and at that time the largest quarantine facility in the United States—on September 1 and 2, 1858. The attack ...

. On November 9, 2001, the

New York State Board of Regents The Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York is responsible for the general supervision of all educational activities within New York State, presiding over the University of the State of New York and the New York State Educatio ...

issued a charter to the National Lighthouse Center and Museum. However, the museum had trouble raising funds: by 2000, it had raised only 2% of the $5 million necessary to start operations, despite being in the second year of a five-year fundraising drive. As a result, the museum opening was subsequently postponed from 2001 to 2003. The museum board was dissolved in 2009, with officials citing slow fundraising activity following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

in 2001, as well as the budget rising to $15 million. By that time, the

New York City Economic Development Corporation New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is a public-benefit corporation that serves as the official economic development organization for New York City. NYCEDC gives its mission as strengthening business confidence in New York C ...

(EDC) had spent $8 million on stabilizing the structures at the Coast Guard Station. In 2013,

John Catsimatidis John A. Catsimatidis (born September 7, 1948) is an American billionaire businessman and radio talk show host. He is the owner, president, chairman, and Chief executive officer, CEO of grocery chains Gristedes and D'Agostino Supermarkets in Manhat ...

donated $105,000 toward the museum. The same year, the museum board was reconvened, and the EDC asked the board to procure $350,000 in exchange for the EDC renting out the foundry for the museum's use for $1 per year. The museum was finally opened in 2015 within the former foundry.

References

External links

Museum website
* {{coord, 40.64071, -74.07499, display=title 2015 establishments in New York City Museums established in 2015 Museums in Staten Island History museums in New York City Lighthouse museums in New York (state) St. George, Staten Island