Race Rock Light Station, Fishers Island New York

Date added: September 20, 2024

Categories:
New York
Lighthouse

Race Rock Light Station from offshore, looking north (2004)

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Located off the western end of Fishers Island in Suffolk County, New York, the Race Rock Light Station has been an active aid to navigation since 1879 and was one of the last offshore light stations in the eastern United States to have a solid masonry base constructed for support.

Engineer, artist and author Francis Hopkinson Smith (1838-1915) was a prominent late nineteenth century civil engineer in the United States whose company was responsible for several important public works in addition to the Race Rock Lighthouse. These other properties include the Block Island breakwater, the Staten Island sea wall, and the foundation for the Statue of Liberty.

This property is located at the Race, a narrows between Fishers Island and northeastern Long Island that is swept by swift tidal currents. It is the place where the open waters of Block Island Sound meet the eastern end of Long Island Sound. This is a choke point for commercial shipping navigating to and from ports in the area, including the Port of New York by way of the East River. It has been a place of substantial maritime traffic since the beginning of seventeenth century European colonial settlement of the region. The volume of shipping passing through the Race and its vicinity since then has increased through time and continues to be heavy in the present day. Vessels plying these waters today consist largely of freighters and tankers carrying cargo, as well as commercial and recreational fishing boats.

Prior to this lighthouse's construction, mariners in the Long Island Sound region regarded Race Rock as one of the most dangerous places in the Fishers Island vicinity. From colonial times onwards this area was the scene of several shipwrecks and groundings despite repeated efforts to mark Race Rock as a navigational hazard using spindles or buoys. Maritime accidents were especially likely between late fall and early spring when storms and ice tended to destroy or carry away markers placed there as warnings. Safe navigation through the area became even more problematic whenever fog occurred.

During the nineteenth century, maritime commercial interests made repeated appeals to the Federal government to improve navigational safety in the Race Rock vicinity. During the late 1860s the U.S. Lighthouse Board finally focused on establishing a permanent light there. This led to Congress authorizing appropriations to survey the site and undertake construction of a lighthouse. The proposed structure was designed by Lighthouse Board engineers and in 1870 a contract for its construction was awarded to a company led by Francis Hopkinson Smith (1838-1915), a renowned civil engineer of that period. In 1871 work at the site began in earnest. It was finally completed in 1878 after numerous natural obstacles and accidental losses were overcome. The Race Rock Light Station was officially established when its optic was first lighted on January 1^st, 1879. Built to be occupied by resident keepers, it continued to be manned until its light and fog signal were automated in 1978.

The lighthouse on Race Rock has been an important aid to navigation throughout its existence. Its signal light has warned mariners of that treacherous ledge nightly from 1879 to the present, and its fog signal has alerted vessels of danger whenever fog obscured visibility in the area. The lighthouse's prominence and distinctive configuration have also made it an easily recognized daymark aiding navigation during daylight hours.

The lighthouse's original 1879 equipment included a fourth-order Fresnel lens that remained in use until 1978 when the light was automated. It was replaced by a DCB-224 aerobeacon that operated until 1996 when it was replaced in turn by the existing VRB-25 marine rotating beacon. The technology of the light station's fog signal also has changed over time. Its original fog bell was later replaced by a compressed air trumpet, which was followed by a siren. The existing modern device was installed around 1996. It sounds two short blasts every 20 seconds.

There has not been a major loss of life from shipwreck at Race Rock since the light station was established there. This record vouches for its standing as a successful example of the Federal government's involvement in promoting maritime safety in the Long Island Sound area.

In its original natural state, Race Rock was a rocky outcropping with water depths of three to thirteen feet. Situated about one-half mile off the west end of Fishers Island, it was a prominent and hazardous feature of the Race (originally called the "Horse Race"), the treacherous narrows swept by tidal currents as great as six knots where the east end of Long Island Sound meets Block Island Sound. Race Rock was surrounded by safe navigable waters and lay in the path of vessels sailing through the narrows between northeastern Long Island and Fishers Island. It claimed many shipwrecks over the years after colonial period settlement began in the region. One of the earliest losses was the John and Lucy, a British ship wrecked at Race Rock in 1671.

Attempts were undertaken in the 1700s to lessen Race Rock's dangerous character by putting markers atop it. Early efforts to raise a permanent marker warning mariners included devices such as timber spindles jammed into the rocks. Later, iron spindles were placed instead of wooden ones. These measures had only temporary success. During winter and early spring, both Long Island and Fishers Island Sounds are choked with ice floes that wreaked havoc on shipping and often destroyed navigational aids. The markers put at Race Rock were useful but easily swept away by storms and ice.

Public demands for a suitable beacon on Race Rock increased over the years. Maritime traffic in the vicinity was heavy due to its proximity to the important fisheries off the New England coast and population centers in New England and the Middle Atlantic States. The growth of United States nautical trade accelerated dramatically after 1850 as a result of surging economic activity. Along with this, concern grew over the potential for further losses at Race Rock and sparked renewed interest in establishing a permanent navigational aid there.

As early as 1838, the U.S. Congress recognized the need to establish a lighthouse off Fishers Island. The first government-funded study concerning this took place in 1854. A comprehensive hydrographic survey of the Race Rock vicinity was authorized in 1869. It included careful soundings of the ledge's immediate vicinity to aid planning for constructing a light station.

A general contract for the construction of a lighthouse on Race Rock was awarded to Francis Hopkinson Smith of New York City in 1871. The total contract amount was just over $250,000, almost equal to the funds appropriated by Congress to cover the estimated costs. Smith was a well known and respected civil engineer who immediately faced the challenge of how to construct a light station that would withstand the violent water conditions off Fisher's Island. The wave-swept site's swift tidal currents made working there perilous, and the structure's design called for a massive stone foundation requiring divers to accomplish extensive underwater masonry construction work.

In addition to the dangerous water conditions, Smith and his crew were also faced with the area's challenging geology. The Race Rock locale included a 12-foot by 4-foot rock ledge that was often completely submerged, along with several smaller rock spurs breaking the surface. This location was swept almost continuously by tidal currents having as much as six knots velocity.

Smith hired Captain Thomas A. Scott in April 1870 as his construction foreman, along with a work crew of twenty men. Their first task was to fulfill the government's original plan for building the structure's foundation on a rock riprap base. Ten thousand tons of riprap brought to the site on barges had been placed by November 1871, but the stones kept shifting away from their intended position instead of forming a firm base. Smith and Captain Scott discovered that the cause of this problem was a discrepancy of eighteen feet between the government charts and the actual depths where they were working. The government's soundings gave a depth of 12 feet at the edge of Race Rock's main pinnacle with a surrounding shallow and level bottom. The contractors discovered that the actual bottom depth in the rock's immediate vicinity was 30 feet, and that the proposed lighthouse site was a ledge with several small rock spurs.

Since the original plan would not work, a new type of foundation base was planned. Smith devised a solution that was implemented beginning in May 1873. He ordered the removal of the recently dumped riprap and used it to create an oval breakwater around Race Rock's main outcrop. This took the form of an ellipse measuring 125 feet by 100 feet. Divers then excavated downward to clean bedrock, creating a circular space 69 feet in diameter.

The next step was to lay a core foundation of approximately 8000 massive cut stone blocks measuring four by four by eight feet, and four by six by nine feet. This core was then encircled with a metal form for pouring concrete. This required lowering curved sheets of boiler iron 10 feet long by three feet tall to the divers who assembled the pieces into a hoop and leveled it. Concrete was then mixed, placed in buckets with drop bottoms, and lowered to the divers who spread it on the bottom. This was repeated until the entire iron hoop was filled with concrete and hardened, creating a smooth surface on which to build the level of concrete. Captain Scott and his divers used this method to build a nine-foot thick concrete foundation on and around the stone blocks.

After the first concrete pad was finished, the forms were repositioned on top and more concrete poured. The circle of iron banding for the foundation's second tier was slightly smaller. The third and fourth levels followed the same plan with successively smaller and higher concentric circles. This process was repeated until the overall foundation took the form of four concentric concrete layers rising 30 feet to the water's surface. The complete foundation projected just eight inches out of the water at mean low tide. The breakwater stones were then hoisted back in against the tiers of circular concrete and every opening carefully filled with smaller stones. This provided the foundation for constructing the light station's above-water granite pier.

Smith and Scott completed this phase of construction between 1874 and 1875. On the northern side of the base, the workmen built a 25-foot wide stone wharf that jutted 51 feet from the base and stood 11 feet above water at low tide that was finished by November 1875. This provided a landing dock and a platform on which to store a small rowboat during settled weather.

With the circular cement concentric base firmly adhering to the bedrock bottom, the building of the lighthouse, pier, and keepers' dwelling commenced. The pier consisted of 14 tiers of cut stone. The bottom course is three feet high. The courses above this are two feet high. The lower nine courses were laid up in dovetail fashion and were fastened together on their upper surface by wrought iron toggles. The top five courses of stone brought the completed structure to a height of 29 feet and 48 feet in diameter at the top where it was capped with a projecting coping of larger blocks to increase the final diameter to 55 feet. This large structure was solidly filled with concrete aggregate up to the nineteen and one-half foot level. The upper nine and one-half feet was left partly hollow to form an octagonal cistern with a capacity of 26,000 gallons of fresh water. The pier was finished when its final stones were laid in December 1877.

The lighthouse's foundation had taken seven years to construct. Strong currents, frequent storms and the yearly onslaught of ice floes during the spring thaw often kept the construction lighters and barges from the site and caused them to seek shelter at Fishers Island or the port of New London, Connecticut. The workers frequently returned to Race Rock only to find that weeks of progress deteriorated or were completely swept away.

In contrast to the difficulties that characterized building the foundation and pier, construction of the keepers' house and light tower took just nine months. The work was completed in December 1878. The new lighthouse's optic was illuminated for the first time on New Year's Day 1879.

Race Rock Lighthouse was designed and engineered for permanence, stability, and self-contained operations. This is important because its open-water location is characterized by seasonally extreme weather conditions. The property's good state of preservation attests to the appropriateness of its design to this environmental setting and its high quality of construction.

The construction of masonry foundation lighthouses in offshore open-water settings began along the New York and New England seacoast in the 1840s. Improvements in design and construction were made through time in following decades. Race Rock is one of the latest examples of the type to be built. These lighthouses are characterized by massive masonry foundations built underwater on submerged bedrock. This type of construction was often very difficult and had to be performed largely by hardhat divers breathing compressed air. The sea floor at Race Rock is formed by a large rock outcrop. It provided a solid base for building up the lighthouse's concrete foundation that provided a stable, durable platform on which the structure's masonry pier and superstructure were erected.

The light on Race Rock stands out from offshore lighthouses built later in the Long Island Sound vicinity in that it incorporates Gothic Revival architectural styling. Lights built after this in similar settings were usually prefabricated tapering cast iron towers constructed on cast iron caissons. This lighthouse's cut stone granite fabric and Gothic styling stands out for its monumental character and restrained symmetrical formality of massing and decorative details. Its steeply pitched roof and square tower transitioning to octagonal form speak clearly of its Gothic tradition.

The completion of Race Rock Light Station's construction coincided with development of a new lighthouse foundation technology that was soon adopted as the preferred building method for structures in offshore settings. During the time took for Race Rock Lighthouse to be built, the U.S. Lighthouse Board developed a construction technique called the caisson foundation. This soon superseded masonry construction at offshore sites. The caisson foundation was made of prefabricated cast iron plates bolted together onsite at the proposed lighthouse location. This formed a shell that was then filled with concrete to create a rigid, heavy footing. As a consequence of this technological advancement, the Race Rock Light Station is exemplary of the terminal period that masonry construction was used for building offshore lighthouses in the eastern United States.

Francis Hopkinson Smith was born 1838 in Baltimore, Maryland. His namesake was his great-grandfather Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Reaching adulthood around the outbreak of the Civil War, Smith worked as assistant superintendent of an iron foundry in New York during that conflict. Building on that experience, he and a partner subsequently established an engineering firm that remained in business for thirty years.

Smith was talented in several fields including civil engineering and was a central figure in several important public works projects undertaken by the Federal government during the late nineteenth century. His firm was contracted to build improvements at the harbor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, the jetties flanking the mouth of the Connecticut River, the breakwater at Block Island, and the Staten Island seawall. Smith was especially active in projects relating to lighthouses, including the base for the Statue of Liberty (which was designed and built to serve as a lighthouse), Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse in Florida, and Race Rock. He also constructed several stations for the U.S. Lifesaving Service which later became part of the U.S. Coast Guard.

In addition to his career as a civil engineer, Francis Hopkinson Smith was prominent in the fields of American literature and art during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. He was a prolific writer who published numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. Two of his books were based on his experiences building the Race Rock Lighthouse. These were Caleb West, Master Diver (1898) and Captain Thomas A. Scott, Master Diver (1908). Another, Colonel Carter of Cartersville (1891), was adapted to the stage and became a theatrical success.

Smith was an accomplished self-taught painter who spent his vacations sketching scenic locations in the United States and abroad. He is well-regarded as a late nineteenth-century American artist who worked extensively in water-colors and charcoal, and is best known for his watercolors and Impressionist style works done after 1900. He produced several individual works reflecting a talent for the romanticized realism style popular in late nineteenth-century America, and also provided numerous illustrations for magazines and books. Smith was a member of the Tile Club, a talented circle of artists, sculptors and architects in New York City from 1877 to 1887 that included Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and Stanford White.

Around the beginning of the twentieth century, Smith retired from the construction business to spend more time with his writing and artwork. He traveled widely and continued his artistic and literary endeavors during his retired years. He ultimately passed away in New York City in 1915. While Francis Hopkinson Smith achieved national celebrity status with his art and literary works, the structures he built such as the Race Rock Lighthouse are equally impressive and stand as testaments to his skill as a civil engineer.

Site Description

The Race Rock Light Station is an offshore masonry lighthouse built on a submerged rocky ledge at the eastern end of Long Island Sound. Its construction began in 1871 and was completed in 1878. This structure is located about one-half mile southwest of Race Point on Fishers Island in Suffolk County, New York. It is owned by the U.S. Coast Guard and maintained as an automated aid to navigation with light and fog signal. The property consists of a lighthouse structure with five principal integrated components. These components include the structure's foundation, keepers' dwelling, light tower, boat dock, and protective riprap. The foundation rests on submerged bedrock and includes a concrete base supporting a massive oval-shaped granite cut stone masonry pier. The keepers' dwelling and integrated light tower sit atop the pier and are built of granite cut stone masonry. Other components of the structure include a concrete and masonry boat landing dock, and rock riprap surrounding the foundation. The Race Rock Light Station's historic integrity is very good. Its location, setting, association, design, materials, workmanship, and feeling are basically unaltered from when originally built. This property is one of the last Gothic Revival style masonry offshore lighthouses built in the eastern United States. The person responsible for its construction was Francis Hopkinson Smith (1838-1915), a prominent American civil engineer of the late nineteenth century. His work included several important public works projects such as U.S. Lifesaving Service stations, the Block Island breakwater and Staten Island seawall, and the base of the Statue of Liberty.

The Race Rock Light Station includes a two-and-one-half-story Gothic Revival style granite masonry keeper's dwelling with an integral three-and-one-half story tower built on a conical-shaped pier of cut stone and concrete. It is located at the eastern end of Long Island Sound, six-tenths of a mile southwest of Race Point on Fishers Island, New York. This area is regarded as part of Suffolk County. Race Rock is about eight miles south-southeast of New London, Connecticut.

The lighthouse's foundation is an oval-shaped concrete mass about 65 feet in diameter and 30 feet tall resting on bedrock. Its base incorporates a cut stone core encased in concrete. This foundation supports an oval-shaped masonry pier 57 feet in diameter at the base, 55 feet wide at the top, and 30 feet tall. The pier is built with an outer wall of cut granite stone blocks measuring four by four by eight feet, and four by six by nine feet. This wall surrounds a poured concrete center.

The structure's concrete foundation and masonry pier are protected by a surrounding deposit of rock riprap consisting of irregular-shaped rocks weighing an average four tons each. The riprap includes two parallel extensions towards the north that shelter the light station's boat landing dock. This masonry and concrete dock is 53 feet long by 25 feet wide with a deck about 11 feet above water level. It is attached to the foundation pier's outer wall on the north side. A metal stairway provides access from the dock to the pier's upper deck where the keepers' dwelling is located.

The keepers' dwelling is built in the Gothic Revival style and includes an integrated light tower. Its north and south facades are about 30 feet wide, and the east and west ends are about 25 feet long. The building's fabric consists of granite cut stone blocks laid in regular courses. The exterior is unpainted and retains its natural gray granite color. Quoining decorates the exterior corners and a stone belt course surrounds the building about a foot above its base. The dwelling has a cross-gabled three-bay rectangular massed plan with projecting center bays on the north and south sides. It includes two stories, basement, and a half-story attic. The roof is steeply pitched and clad with sheet metal fastened with batten joints. The roof includes a slight open eave overhang decorated with vergeboard. The paired, end interior brick chimneys hide trusses in the east and west gable ends. The north gable is above the dwelling's first-story main entrance and features a single window with an arched drip-mold crown on the second story level. The front doorway is adorned with a stone lintel and keystone. Fenestration in the dwelling and light tower, excepting the lantern, consists of modern aluminum frame widows with metal sash and muntins. Most windows are one-over-one, double-hung sash with plexiglass glazing. Most upper lights of this sash are pierced with metal ventilation grills. All windows in the lighthouse have stone lintels and sills.

The structure's granite masonry light tower is 45 feet tall and attached to the dwelling's south side. It is three and one-half stories tall and projects outward from the dwelling's center bay. The tower has the date "1878" carved in stone between the first and second-story windows. It measures about 10 feet by 10 feet square from its base to the top of its second-story window. From there, it transitions to an octagonal tower at the third-story level. The first and second story levels each have a single 2.5-foot wide by 5-foot tall rectangular window on the south facade. The third-story octagonal section has three 2-foot wide by 5-foot tall gothic-arched windows, one on each of its east, south and west facades. The tower is topped with an octagonal gallery supported by brackets. The half-story tall lighthouse lantern sits atop this gallery.

The main entrance to the dwelling is below the projecting center gable on its north facade. Three stone steps lead from the pier deck to the doorway which opens to a small foyer. An interior doorway leads from there to the dwelling's first-floor central hallway. The hallway extends southward and ends at a doorway leading to the light tower stairway. The dwelling's interior walls and ceilings feature plaster over wood frame construction. The first story has a single large room on its west side and two smaller rooms on its east side. The west room extends the length of the dwelling from front to rear and is presently empty. Its doorway is on the hallway's west side just inside the entrance.

The northeast room has the same width as the west room but is about one-half as long. Its doorway is directly opposite the west room door. At the present time, the northeast room contains electrical panels and batteries providing power to the lighthouse's aid to navigation equipment. The first floor's southeast room is similar in size to the northeast room and contains toilet and bathing facilities. Its doorway is near the central hallway's southern end.

A metal door at the first story hallway's south end opens to the interior of the light tower. The tower's inside walls are lined with brick. It contains a cast iron spiral stairway 7.5 feet in diameter supported by a central post. Stairway landings with cast iron floors are located at the first, second, and attic story levels. Each flight of stairs between these landings has 16 steps. The first and second story landings are lighted with one window each while the third (attic) story landing has three windows.

A descending flight of 16 steps leads from the tower's first story landing to the dwelling's basement. The basement occupies a recessed area in the pier's concrete interior beneath the dwelling. It includes six brick-lined rooms that are presently empty. There are three rooms on either side of a central corridor below the first story hallway. When the light station was occupied these were used for a kitchen, pantry, cool closet, machinery room, and fuel storage. There are fresh water cisterns beneath the basement floor.

An ascending flight of 16 stairs leads from the tower's first-floor landing to the second-story landing. A metal door there provides access to the dwelling's second floor. This level includes a central hallway extending northward. There are five rooms, two each along the hallway's east and west sides and a fifth room at the hallway's north end. The four side rooms along the hallway occupy the second floor's four corners. Each includes a closet and a 5-foot tall by 2.5-foot wide rectangular window with one over one double hung sash. The fifth room is under the north facade's projecting gable and has no closet. It is lighted by a 5-foot tall by 2-foot wide gothic-arched window above the main entrance.

Another ascending flight of 16 stairs in the tower leads to its third-story landing. There, a metal door three feet wide by five feet eight inches tall allows access to the dwelling's attic. Yet another ascending flight of 16 stairs leads from the third-story landing to the lantern room. This last stair flight is walled with metal plates and has a metal door halfway up.

The light tower supports an octagonal cast iron lantern surrounded by an octagonal gallery four feet wide surrounded by a wrought iron railing. The lantern has an octagonal metal roof capped with a vent ball and lightning rod. The lantern's sides include eight cast iron parapet panels, each 32 inches wide by 3 feet tall. These are surmounted by eight rectangular storm pane windows 3 feet tall by 32 inches wide with metal astragals. The lantern room interior is 6 feet-4 inches in diameter with wood paneled parapet walls and an iron floor. A metal door 2 feet wide by 29 inches tall in one parapet panel provides access to the gallery outside. The focal plane of the lantern's optic is 67 feet above mean low water. Its existing optic is a VRB-25 Vega Industries rotating marine beacon that flashes red.

The exterior of the keepers' dwelling is surrounded by the foundation pier's concrete deck. There is a solar panel array mounted on the deck at the dwelling's southeast corner. This is used for charging batteries that power the lighthouse's light and fog signal. The fog signal device is mounted on the pier deck alongside the solar panel.

The Race Rock Light Station is notable for its well-preserved condition. Its physical character has changed little since its construction was completed in 1878. The most notable changes to the lighthouse relate to its navigation aid equipment. Technological advances following the station's 1879 establishment led to the lighthouse optic and fog signal being replaced with newer equipment from time to time. The original 1879 optic was a revolving fourth-order Fresnel lens that displayed a flashing white light with red-colored danger area towards the northeast. This original lens was removed when the station was automated in 1978 and replaced with a rotating DCB-224 aerobeacon.

The present whereabouts of the light station's original fourth order Fresnel lens is unknown. In December 2004 inquiries concerning it were directed to the Curator of the U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office, the Long Island Sound Aid to Navigation Team at the Coast Guard Station in New Haven, Connecticut, and the Office of Aids to Navigation at the First Coast Guard District Headquarters in Boston. None had information on where the lens is today.

The lighthouse's DCB-224 aerobeacon was replaced in 1996 with the existing VRB-25 Vega Industries rotating marine beacon. The present-day optic characteristic is a red light that flashes for one second every ten seconds. It is visible for 16 nautical miles. There is also an emergency light of reduced intensity mounted on a pole affixed to the lantern gallery. This operates if the main light is extinguished. The lighthouse is equipped with a modern fog signal mounted on the pier deck at the southeast corner of the keepers' dwelling. It sounds two blasts every thirty seconds. These existing navigation aids are powered with batteries recharged by a solar panel assembly mounted on the pier deck at the southeast corner of the keepers' dwelling, next to the fog signal.

With the exception of the structure's roofing materials, windows and doors, the entire lighthouse is virtually unaltered from when originally built. Its foundation and superstructure retain their original forms. While window sash and the main entrance door are modern replacements, most of the interior window frames and doorways are original. Even though more than a century of exposure to the elements has left substantial pitting on the light station's masonry, the structure's stone elements show no sign of substantial cracks or missing pieces. The late nineteenth century Race Rock Lighthouse has stood up well to the elements through more than 125 years since its construction. It continues to withstand the strong tidal currents of the Race off Fisher's Island, where it remains a prominent landmark and example of the use of Gothic Revival styling in American lighthouse design.