Montauk Lighthouse closer to landmark status

The Montauk Point Lighthouse is expected to join the exclusive list of National Historic Landmarks after a National Park Service committee Thursday recommended approval.

The National Park Service Advisory Board's Landmarks Committee recommended approval to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who will make the final decision. He is expected to follow the recommendation.

That would make the lighthouse -- authorized by President George Washington and built in 1796 -- the 12th National Historic Landmark in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

"It's absolutely fantastic," said Brian Pope, assistant manager of the Montauk Point Lighthouse Museum. "We've been working on this for six years. It's a great honor."

The lighthouse is already one of the more than 86,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places maintained by the park service. But becoming one of the fewer than 2,500 National Historic Landmarks could increase visitation and help the museum obtain grants for restoration, programming and exhibits.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) has been helping the historical society, which owns the lighthouse, with its application. She wrote Wednesday to the committee urging a recommendation for inclusion of New York's oldest lighthouse and one of the first seacoast lighthouses authorized by Congress.

"The committee's decision brings Montauk Point Lighthouse one step closer to taking its rightful place as one of our National Historic Landmarks," she wrote. "The iconic lighthouse's importance is indisputable. I will urge Secretary Salazar to approve the status for this site, an iconic part of Long Island's landscape."

According to the park service, national historic landmarks must "possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States."

The historical society made a case that from 1797 to 1870 the lighthouse was a critical waypoint for ships coming from Europe and it helped make New York Harbor the nation's premier port.