Montauk Point Lighthouse

The Montauk Point Light is a lighthouse, located in Montauk Point State Park at the easternmost point of Long Island, in the Town of East Hampton, Suffolk County, New York. The light house was the first to be built within the state of New York, and is currently the fourth oldest active lighthouse in the United States. It is the oldest lighthouse in New York.


Construction on the lighthouse was authorized by the Second United States Congress, under President George Washington in 1792. Construction began on June 7, 1796, and was completed on November 5, 1796. The lighthouse and adjacent Camp Hero were heavily fortified with huge guns during World War I and World War II. Those gun emplacements and concrete observation bunkers (which are also at nearby Shadmoor State Park) are still visible.

It was the first lighthouse in New York State, and is the fourth-oldest active lighthouse in the United States. The tower is 110′ 6″ high. The current light, equivalent to 2,500,000 candle power, flashes every 5 seconds and can be seen a distance of 18 nautical miles.

Pirate Captain Kidd was said to have buried treasure at the foot of the lighthouse around 1699 at two ponds which today are called “Money Ponds.

On August 26, 1839, members of the slave ship Amistad which had been commandeered by its slave cargo in Cuba used the lighthouse as a guide to drop anchor at nearby Culloden Point and come ashore at Montauk (near the modern day train station) to get supplies. The slaves who had let their former captors do the navigating thought the ship was going back to Africa. Members of the naval ship USS Washington (1837) seeing the slaves ashore arrested them and took them to Connecticut The case was to work its way to the U.S. Supreme Court with John Quincy Adams arguing for the Africans. The court was to decide in their favor saying the initial capture of the Africans was illegal and they were freed.

The tower was originally all white. Its single brown stripe was added in 1903.

2000 New York 27
Montauk, NY 11954