Murray’s History of Hereford Lighthouse Reveals Maritime Heritage

NORTH WILDWOOD — Steve Murray is so passionate about the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse and its history, he wrote the book about it.
“Guardians of the Hereford Inlet” is Murray’s documentation of the lighthouse and connected structures — the Anglesea Life Saving Station and the U.S. Coast Guard Life Boat Station No. 133 — that share much of the same history. They helped protect 19th and 20th century sailors navigating waters near Hereford Inlet — the body of water between Stone Harbor and North Wildwood that leads to the Intracoastal Waterway.
The 200-page book, which is the first to document the maritime history of the Hereford Inlet, is filled with stories, facts and figures on the Central Avenue site as well as numerous “priceless” photos that Murray said were donated by numerous lighthouse visitors and friends.
The lighthouse is listed on both the National and State Registers of Historic Places, and is a part of the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail. The Friends of the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse group operates the structure through money generated by lighthouse tours, gift shop sales and various fundraising projects, including its first Maritime Festival held last weekend, July 17-18. Organizers hope it will become an annual event.
Now that the lighthouse is thriving as a landmark, the same group of volunteers who helped restore it, want to acquire the life saving station and boathouse, owned by the New Jersey State Police’s Marine Bureau.
“We envision one historic site that encompasses the intertwined history of all of the structures as the Anglesea Maritime Village,” Murray said. “It’s very clear that the sites have to be considered as well as preserved as one historic property.”
He gave the Herald a quick history of the sites.
“Because there were more than 300 shipwrecks near the Hereford Inlet in the previous decade, a life saving station was constructed in 1849, and then reconstructed in 1871,” Murray said. “Because shipwrecks continued along the coast of the uninhabited barrier island, the next year Congress enacted legislation to purchase land to build a lighthouse here.”
“Construction began in November 1873 and was completed at the end of March the next year,” Murray said, noting that the architect or draftsman of the Victorian lighthouse was Paul J. Pelz, who later designed the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Murray said a new Life Saving Station was built in 1888. At the time, both the lighthouse and life saving services were run by the Department of the Treasury.
“They were, however, both in the business of saving lives,” Murray said in his book’s introduction. “The Lighthouse by warning and the Life Saving Service by rescue.”
By 1939, the Coast Guard had taken control of both services adding a boathouse to the site years earlier.
In 1964, the Coast Guard automated the lighthouse, placing an unmanned rotating light near the site. The buildings were closed and transferred to the control of the New Jersey State Marine Police, who found use for the life saving station, but abandoned the lighthouse.
Murray said that for 18 years the lighthouse sat boarded up and deteriorating with rotting timbers and holes in the roof until 1982 when North Wildwood Mayor Anthony Catanoso and his wife Phyllis signed a lease with the state for stewardship of the lighthouse. Through the hard work of volunteers and generous contributions of sponsors, a portion of the dilapidated structure was restored and opened to the public in less than a year.
“That’s why I dedicated the book to the Catanosos for having a 20-year crusade to successfully save the lighthouse,” Murray said.
After additional grants from the state Historic Trust and Department of Transportation, lighthouse restoration is nearly complete with only a few phases of construction remaining to restore it to original condition.
To this day, the light still spins in the evening as an aid to navigation. The building, finished with period antiques and educational displays, functions as a museum and the once-barren, sandy grounds were transformed into an award-winning garden park, thanks to Murray, who spent 25 years designing gardens for North Wildwood as the city’s superintendent of parks.
Murray said if the Friends group were able to acquire the adjoining properties, it would seek to list them on the national and state historic registers and to complete an accurate restoration of the lifeboat station.
Murray said the State Police have opposed the transfer of the property, but he remains optimistic. He said there is a petition with thousands of signatures in the lighthouse gift shop asking the state to relinquish control of the station to the lighthouse group.
“I know that one day we will get the station,” he told the Herald. “It’s taken years to get where we’ve gotten with the lighthouse. I expect it will take years more to get the rest.”
For information, call (609) 522-4520 or visit www.herefordlighthouse.org.