It might not be the beacon of its big sister, guiding ships to safely to land, but the “new” Horton Point Lighthouse is drawing in land-dwellers just the same.
A newly refurbished model of the Horton Point Lighthouse was dedicated on the rainy Sunday morning of April 26 at Orient Beach State Park, with park director William Bohach welcoming a group of attendees who braved the weather.
The model, restored by Tom Hughes with the help of park staff, sits prominently on the Main Road at the entrance of the park next to a smaller replica of Bug Light.
Bohach lauded the work done by Hughes, a park maintenance worker who completed the model over the winter amid his other park duties, spending about 100 hours on the task.
“The attention to detail is remarkable,” Bohach notes, adding that Hughes’ carpentry work was done completely by eye without following measurements or plans. Hughes relied on old photographs and a tour of the lighthouse to help guide his work on the project, which contains a working beacon made to resemble the real lighthouse’s flashing green light, and a replica of the 10 bronze gargoyle waterspouts on the lighthouse’s dome.
Bohach said that the park has models of four lighthouses in Southold Town and one from New London, most of which need refurbishing and are slated to become winter projects in the future.
They are certainly worthy of the honor. The Horton Point Lighthouse sits on a rocky section of coastline with a mile-long sandbar just offshore, which led to a total of 13 shipwrecks in the area, according to Ray Nofi, co-chair of the Lighthouse Committee at the Southold Historical Museum. The danger to sailing ships caused the waters around Horton Point to be known as Dead Man’s Cove prior to the lighthouse’s construction.
“George Washington had been through here and heard about the hazards…when he became president, he authorized the building of the lighthouse,” Nofi says. “The construction of the lighthouse didn’t actually begin until 1857.”
Nofi notes that the foundation of the lighthouse is made of large boulders from New England, and its square tower is a unique feature not found on any other lighthouse in the United States. Its green beacon was lit in 1857 and stayed on until 1933, when the lighthouse keeper was let go and the light electrified.
The Horton Point Lighthouse had fallen into disrepair, but efforts led by Cliff Benfield and a group of volunteers restored it in the late 1980s. It was recommissioned in 1990, and the green beacon was lit once again. Benfield’s son John, grandson Ben, and great-grandson and namesake Cliff attended the model’s dedication, along with family members, park staff, members of the Southold Historical Museum and Southold Town Historian Amy Folk.
The model of the Horton Point Lighthouse at the entrance to Orient Beach State Park can be viewed at any time; hours for visiting the actual lighthouse (3575 Lighthouse Road, Southold) are Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m., from Memorial Day weekend through mid-September. Admission to the lighthouse is $5 per person or $10 per family (cash only), which includes the Nautical Museum and the Maple Lane Complex at 55200 Main Road in Southold. Visitors should note that parking is available in the Southold Park District’s lot for a $5 fee if not a Park District resident; street parking is by Southold Town Permit only.
For more information, check the museum’s website here.
