HomeMy WebLinkAboutLatimer Reef
Lighthouse History by Amy Folk – Southold Town Historian
Latimer Reef
Built 1884
Located approximately a mile north of Fishers Island’s eastern shore, Latimer Reef
lies just inside Southold Town’s border. The lighthouse is the oldest cast iron
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lighthouse still in use in the Northeast. The area it marks, Latimer Reef, is a
broken and rocky area that stretches underwater for almost a half mile. The
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lighthouse marks the western end of the reef and a buoy marks the eastern end.
Some of the first recorded attempts to mark the reef as a navigational hazard, go
back to the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1804 an iron spike with a white
vane was driven into the rock. However each winter the ice that formed around the
spike broke it off and the ice floe would carry it away. The area was also marked
with a lightship anchored at Eel Grass Shoal just over a half a mile away starting in
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1849.
Just after the Civil War, the spike was replaced with a buoy. By 1878, both a buoy
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and an iron spindle were being used to mark the reef. The Lighthouse Board in
1884 decided on a more permanent solution and began construction on the
lighthouse. When the light was complete, the Eel Grass Lightship was then
From author's collection
reassigned to relief duty and stationed at New London.
The foundation of the light rests on the rocky reef and is anchored on Latimer Rock. The lighthouse is a brick-lined cast iron tower.
The cast iron structure was pre-fabricated and assembled on site. To improve stability, the tower’s base was filled with cement to the
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height of 25 feet. The new lighthouse was painted brown with a black lantern.
The exterior of the truncated tower appears squat, but is actually comprised of four stories. The lower three stories are living quarters
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for the light keepers. The top floor just under the light is a watch deck. Unfortunately for those who lived in the light, the only heat
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in the winter was produced by a coal stove on the first floor.
In 1954, the lighthouse was automated and its keepers were reassigned. The light was never hooked up to an electrical supply on the
th9
mainland. Rather it jumped from 19 century technology to solar power.
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The tower was repainted its current colors in 1997. And in 2008, the Federal Government put it up for auction and it was sold to a
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private owner.
1
Harlan Hamilton, Lights and Legends: A Historical Guide to Lighthouses, (Stamford, Connecticut: Wescott Cove Publishing Company, 1987) 212.
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid. Robert G. Muller, Long Island Lighthouses, Past and Present, (Patchogue, New York: Long Island Chapter of the US Lighthouse Society, 2004) 214.
4
Hamilton, 212-213.
5
Muller, 217 & Hamilton, 214.
6
Muller, 217.
7
Hamilton, 214.
8
Muller, 220.
9
“Latimer Reef Lighthouse, NY,” http://lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=739, Accessed July 2018.
10
Muller, 222.
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“Latimer Reef Lighthouse, NY”
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Hamilton, Harlan. Lights & Legends. Stamford, Connecticut: Wescott Cove Publishing Company, 1987.
Keatts, Henry and Farr, George. The Bell Tolls: Shipwrecks & Lighthouses vol. 2 Eastern Long Island. Laurel, New York: Main Road
books, Inc. , 2002.
Lighthousefriends.com. Latimer Reef Lighthouse, New York. 2001. http://lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=739 (accessed July 27,
2018).
Muller, Robert G. Long Island's Lighthouses Past and Present. Patchogue, New York: Long Island Chapter of the US Lighthouse
Society, 2004.