St. George Coast Guard Station

Office Building and U.S. Light-House Depot Complex
1869 Second Empire office building designed by Alfred B. Mullett as it appeared in 2014
Location 1 Bay St., Staten Island, New York
Coordinates 40°38′28″N 74°4′30″W / 40.64111°N 74.07500°W / 40.64111; -74.07500Coordinates: 40°38′28″N 74°4′30″W / 40.64111°N 74.07500°W / 40.64111; -74.07500
Area 1.5 acres (0.61 ha)
Built 1840
Architect Alfred B. Mullett
Architectural style Greek Revival, Second Empire
NRHP reference # 83001785[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP September 15, 1983
Designated NYCL November 25, 1980[2]

St. George Coast Guard Station, or the Staten Island Coast Guard Station, located adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry terminal, began its life in 1778. It is a complex of 22 historic buildings and was best known for the invention and manufacturing of lighthouse equipment. The Office Building and U.S. Light-House Depot Complex, designed by Alfred B. Mullet and completed in 1865, are landmarked buildings listed on the National Register.

In the late 1990s, New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) took over the site and created a public plaza; a public fishing pier (Pier 1); a fully functioning building that was supposed to house a gift shop for the National Lighthouse Museum. EDC also stabilized the building adjacent to the gift shop for the purpose of housing the Museum's artifacts.

The site has views of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge; Brooklyn's Shore Road, Governor's Island and Manhattan. During the summer months, concerts and events sponsored by local organizations such as Staten Island Community Board 1 and the Downtown Staten Island Council attract tourists from the ferry as well as local residents.

Office Building and U.S. Light-House Depot Complex

The Office Building and U.S. Light-House Depot Complex, also known as the Old Administration Building for the Third District U.S. Coast Guard, is a historic office building and light house repair depot complex. The complex consists of four buildings: the three-story brick and sandstone office building in the Second Empire style; two brick warehouses; and a small one-story brick building formerly used as a laboratory. The office building was designed by the Office of the Supervising Architect under Alfred B. Mullett in 1869. The warehouses were built about 1845 and in 1868. The older warehouse is in the Greek Revival style.[3]

United States Lighthouse Board

The office building was constructed during the time that U.S. lighthouses were administered by the United States Lighthouse Board, which had been founded in 1851 to improve lighthouse technology and management practices. The board divided the nation into 12 districts, each served by a depot where supplies for the district's lighthouses were stored, particularly the flammable fuels in use at that time, which required specialized handling. The depot in St. George, Staten Island served the Third Lighthouse District, which stretched from Maine to Delaware and thus included many of the best known and historic lights on the Eastern Seaboard, including Sandy Hook Light, Montauk Light, and Barnegat Light. Vaults for fuel storage remain on the depot property, and other supplies were stored in the warehouses. The laboratory building was used to research improved materials and techniques for use in U.S. lighthouses.[4]

The functions of the Lighthouse Board were transferred to other U.S. government agencies starting in 1903, and ultimately to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939, whereupon the site became known as the St. George Coast Guard Station and the office building as the Administration Building of that facility. Finally in 1966 the Coast Guard vacated the facility when it moved its operations to Governors Island, and the site became surplus property.[4] It appears that little was done to safeguard the site from vandalism and the elements and it began to decay, despite the designation of the Office Building as a New York City landmark in 1980,[4] and the listing of the entire site on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[1] In the late 1990s the New York City Economic Development Corporation acquired the property, but did little with it for several years.

Current use of the site

In 1998 the site was selected to be the site of a new National Lighthouse Center and Museum.[5] By this time the buildings, having been abandoned for over thirty years, were in serious need of restoration.[6] The museum resumed fundraising in 2010 and by early 2014 had raised over $400,000, enough to secure a short term lease on the site's building 11, a 1912 machine shop on the boundary of the site.[7] The museum plans to open in building 11 in August 2014.[8] However this is not enough to renovate the entire site and fundraising for the museum continues.[9]

As of 2014, the other historic structures, including the office building, are fenced off and are in near-ruined condition. In April 2014 the Economic Development Corporation and a developer, Triangle Equities, jointly announced their plan to build a complex, to be completed in 2019 and to be known as Lighthouse Point, that would incorporate the existing historic structures and would include hotel, residential, and retail uses.[10][11]

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "Old Administration Building" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. November 25, 1980. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  3. ↑ "Cultural Resource Information System (CRIS)" (Searchable database). New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2016-06-01. Note: This includes Larry E. Gobrecht (June 1981). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Office Building and U.S. Light-House Depot Complex" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-06-01. and Accompanying six photographs
  4. 1 2 3 Dibble, James E. "Old Administration Building (Third District U.S. Lighthouse Depot) (Designation Report)" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  5. ↑ "Staten Island Depot Selected for National Lighthouse Center and Museum (Press Release)". U.S. National Park Service Maritime Heritage Program. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  6. ↑ "Lighthouse group taps Staten Island for museum". Southwest Missourian. 19 July 1998. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  7. ↑ "Lighthouse Service Depot". Lost Destinations. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  8. ↑ "National Lighthouse Museum website". National Lighthouse Museum. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  9. ↑ "Staten Island's National Lighthouse Museum to move forward". Staten Island Advance. 10 February 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  10. ↑ "City announces lease for vacant lot scheduled to become mixed-used Lighthouse Point development in St.George". SILive.com. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  11. ↑ "Lighthouse Point". Triangle Equities. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.