Absecon Lighthouse
Atlantic City, New Jersey
We arrived in Atlantic City just at dusk, and as we approached our hotel, passed by the Absecon tower. When we settled in our room on the seventeenth floor, we looked out and down on the lighthouse, just a few blocks away.
The
tower was first lit in 1857. The keeper and assistant keepers lived in buildings
on the site. The structures were demolished in the 1940's but the replica of
the original keeper's dwelling now serves as a museum and gift shop.
Sometime after 1857, the daymark was changed from a solid dark tower to the current marking.
The recently restored lighthouse is owned by the state of New Jersey but is operated as a historic site by the Inlet Public/Private Association. The restoration took four years and cost more than three million dollars.
The lighthouse is located at Pacific and Rhode Island Avenues, just a few blocks from the northern end of the famed Atlantic City Boardwalk.
When we visited the lighthouse
at Cape May, and were discussing Absecon with the park official there, she commented
on the fact that the lighthouse's importance has been greatly diminished with
the abundance of lights from all the nearby casinos!
© copyright 2004 Kenneth M. Moffett. All rights reserved.