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

Office Building and U.S. Light-House Depot Complex
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
NYC Landmark
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]
Added to NRHP	September 15, 1983

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 located at St. George, Staten Island, New York. 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.^[2]

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.^[3]

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.^[3] 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,^[3] 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.

In 1998 the site was selected to be the site of a new National Lighthouse Center and Museum.^[4] By this time the buildings, having been abandoned for over thirty years, were in serious need of restoration.^[5] 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.^[6] The museum plans to open in building 11 in August 2014.^[7] However this is not enough to renovate the entire site and fundraising for the museum continues.^[8]

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.^[9][10]

References

External links

• Lost Destinations:U.S. Lighthouse Service Depot/Coast Guard's Third District Headquarters, Staten Island, New York
• National Lighthouse Museum website
• Developer website

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