VILLAS — Lower Township may soon hold the title to Brandywine Shoals Lighthouse seven miles out in Delaware Bay.
At a Mon., July 16 Township Council meeting, acting on a request from Cape May Maritime Museum and Education Center, council introduced an ordinance to accept title to the landmark lighthouse.
Kevin Maloney, organization president, said the group “put its name in the hat” to take stewardship of the lighthouse.
“This is the closest municipality to this beautiful lifesaving station,” he said.
The lighthouse has both state and national historic designation, Maloney said. He added that Congress passed an act in 2000 to make lighthouses available — at no cost — to municipalities and nonprofit organizations.
Millions of dollars have been spent to restore Brandywine Shoals Lighthouse, said Maloney. The lighthouse has a harbor to protect it from ice floes, he said.
According to the website Lighthousefriends.com., construction of a screwpile lighthouse began in 1847 on the site. That lighthouse was replaced in 1915.
Further the website states, “The deck supports a three-story dwelling of reinforced concrete, circular in plan, from the roof of which projects a circular watch room, which supports a third-order cylindrical helical-bar lantern whose focal place is 60 feet above high water. The main deck is covered by a veranda roof and there are galleries with railings on a level with the watch-room floor and the lantern floor. The concrete pier was constructed on shore, launched, towed out to the site, and sunk in place on a pile foundation. The pile foundation consists of 74 timber piles driven about three feet on center to a penetration of 19 feet.”
It was the third lighthouse in the nation to receive a Fresnel lens. That lens is on display in the Tuckerton Seaport Museum.
Brandywine Shoals Lighthouse was the last to be manned on Delaware Bay and was automated in 1974.
Maloney said the lighthouse bell was as large as the Liberty Bell. He said the museum group plans to preserve the lighthouse and offer tours.
A preservation plan is in place using volunteers, said Maloney.
“We’re really ready to go in and restore this to a moment in time when it was actually manned,” he said.
The National Park Service liked the museum’s application but wanted a succession plan to maintain the lighthouse in perpetuity, Maloney said. The group also presented a financing plan.
The township would take ownership of the lighthouse at no cost. Should the organization disappear the ordinance would allow another nonprofit organization to be sought to operate the lighthouse. Maloney said the township could also return ownership of the lighthouse to the National Park Service.
Council expressed enthusiasm for the project and introduced the ordinance to receive the title.
Maloney said the organization would indemnify the municipality from any risk. He envisioned the lighthouse would be self-sustaining.
The Cape May Maritime Museum and Education Center also hopes to build a replica of an 1876 lifesaving station on the site of the former Northwest Magnesite plant between Sunset and Higbee beaches.
