It may not be a new effort, but something is taking shape under the tarpaulins around the Cedar Island Lighthouse at Cedar Point Park. Anyone who has recently trekked onto the peninsula or even onto Long Wharf in Sag Harbor to peer through the scope there may have noticed that things look a little different these days.
A five-year plan launched by former County Legislator Bridget Fleming to renovate the exterior of the historic light is inching closer to its anticipated completion in 2028.
While the county is supportive of plans to renovate the interior, it has not allocated the funding to do so, leaving a small group called the Friends of the Cedar Island Lighthouse to raise the money itself, according to Lee Skolnick, the project’s architect. Those efforts have to date proven unsuccessful, so the interior work is instead part of a longer-term goal.
Legislator Ann Welker, who was elected in 2023 to replace Ms. Fleming, has “picked up the mantle completely,” Mr. Skolnick said, describing her as an advocate who has pushed for county funding.
Although plans had initially included the light’s possible use as a bed-and-breakfast, with money earned from rentals used to keep the doors open, Mr. Skolnick said that idea is no longer on the table.
He said in an interview last week that the Cedar Island Light’s sister lighthouse in Saugerties, N.Y., does have a bed-and-breakfast component, but he noted that the money made there is not enough to fully support the lighthouse services.
Mr. Skolnick was asked several years ago to take over the operations and the not-for-profit the Friends of the Cedar Island Lighthouse created. The group has until the exterior is completed in two years to get funding in place for the interior — which he and county officials envision as an educational venue.
Work to stabilize the building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, began several years ago. Current construction will include further stabilization, installation of interior stairways, construction of observation platforms, and preparing the building for future public access.
The lighthouse was built in 1838 after an act of Congress provided $3,500 for its construction. It was to be a beacon for whaling ships coming and going from Sag Harbor. It was decommissioned in 1934 and sold to Phelan Beale of Grey Gardens and then to Isabelle Bradley. Eighteen lighthouse keepers, each with their own colorful histories — including a Civil War veteran and a former Montauk Lighthouse keeper — oversaw it during the century it operated.
In 1967, the county bought it and made it part of the county park at Cedar Point. A victim of arson in 1974, the lighthouse was boarded up and remained that way for decades.
The interior and roof were badly damaged in the fire. Granite blocks became structurally unsound. Finding a match proved difficult, Mr. Skolnick said, but ultimately preservation architects and builders sourced the replacement stone from quarries in Connecticut and Massachusetts; the original granite used to build the lighthouse in the 19th century would have been sourced from the same quarries.
The original cupola that contained the lighthouse’s lens is being temporarily housed at the Sag Harbor Yacht Club, where the 10,000-pound structure was moved by barge in 2013. It will soon be moved back to Cedar Point Park and fully restored.
Surely, there are challenges ahead in fleshing out the museum component of the proposal. The roughly three-mile walk along the beach makes it difficult to access the lighthouse. The peninsula is also home to piping plovers, which nest there from April to September, and during that time there is a dedicated path to the point, but it is limited, Mr. Skolnick said.
Education will begin with new signage, he said, including at the county park and across the water at the wharf in Sag Harbor.
Mr. Skolnick has tapped Steve Long, the executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society, to be part of the future planning process as well as Shannon Carleton, a charter boat captain out of Sag Harbor.
With the addition of several more members to the Friends of the Cedar Island Lighthouse board, Mr. Skolnick says he believes they have a great shot at “interpreting this incredible story.”
