Main Lighthouse, Sandy Hook: Southwest View

Artist Franklin Patterson

Period1879

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions12.25 × 10 in. (31.1 × 25.4 cm)

SignedHandwritten in ink on the reverse, "Main. Light. Sandy. Hook. / S.W. View. By F. P. 1. 8. 7. 9."

ClassificationsLandscapes & Still Life

Credit LineGift of Stacy Patterson Rue, 1996

Object number1996.1

DescriptionView of the 1764 Sandy Hook Lighthouse from the southwest. The light is shown to the left of center, a white-painted stone structure with a black-painted metal lantern and railing around it. A cluster of structures are depicted at its base. A two-story stone building with a wooden leanto against it and two red brick chimneys at its gable ends appears closest to the lighthouse. A smaller story and a half red brick structure with one chimney on its left gable end and a columned front porch with railings sits in front of the stone structure. A red brick link connects the two buildings to the lighthouse itself. All of the structures are surrounded by a white-painted board fence. Trees are shown to the left of the lighthouse, and to the right of the other structures. Dune grass grows in the sandy soil in the foreground.
Curatorial RemarksThe painting was executed by Franklin Patterson (b. 1839) at the age of forty. His brother Charles Patterson (b. 1827) served as keeper of the lighthouse.NotesThe Sandy Hook Lighthouse, located about one and a half miles inland from the tip of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, is the oldest working lighthouse in the United States. Designed and built by Isaac Conro, it was first lit on 11 June 1764. At that time, it stood only 500 feet from the tip of Sandy Hook; however, today, due to growth caused by littoral drift, it is almost one and a half miles inland from the tip. The light was built to aid mariners entering the southern end of the New York Harbor. It was originally called New York Lighthouse because it was funded through a New York Assembly lottery and a tax on all ships entering the Port of New York. The lighthouse has endured an attempt to destroy it as an aid to British navigation by Benjamin Tupper, and a subsequent occupancy of British soldiers during the Revolutionary War. Almost two years after the State of New York ratified the U.S. Constitution, the lighthouse was transferred to federal authority. George Washington wrote to the Senate on April 5, 1790, "I have directed my private secretary to lay before you copies of three acts of the legislature of New York ... An act for vesting in the United States of America the light-house and the lands thereunto belonging at Sandy Hook." The lighthouse is now located on the grounds of Fort Hancock. The lighthouse underwent a major refurbishing in 1857. At that time a new iron interior staircase replaced the wooden one, and a new lantern was installed. In 1990, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 25 cent stamp featuring the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. Today Sandy Hook Lighthouse, which was restored in spring 2000, is part of the Sandy Hook Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area administered by the National Park Service.

Collections