Upgrades shore up Bug Light off of Orient

As a boat eased up to Bug Lighthouse off Orient on a recent sunny afternoon, visitors were greeted by a modern, new dock and access ramp. Wide, flat boulders now surround the perimeter of the lighthouse, providing a walking path and a more stable foundation for one of the North Fork’s most recognizable landmarks.

The East End Seaport Museum recently completed an $880,000 project to stabilize the historic lighthouse and better protect it from the elements in Gardiners Bay. It included the installation of a 40-foot pier and 161-foot stone walkway around the lighthouse.

Museum officials unveiled the renovations at a ribbon cutting Thursday to more than a dozen community members, elected officials and supporters.

“It’s part of the horizon, part of the history and part of who we are out here on the East End, and for a while we were at real risk of losing it,” said Erin Kimmel, the executive director of the seaport museum, which stewards the structure.

The previous rock pile foundation had started to crumble into the water, putting the lighthouse at risk and making visitor access treacherous.

Kimmel said the projects mark the first step of a more comprehensive renovation.

“Without this phase, there is no lighthouse restoration, and without this dock, there are no visitors,” she said.

The original dated to 1870

The original structure, formally known as the Long Beach Bar Lighthouse, was built on tall screw piles in 1870. When high tides covered the rock foundation, the lighthouse resembled a large water bug, hence the nickname “Bug Light,” according to the museum.

Community members rallied to build a replica of the lighthouse in 1990, more than 25 years after it burned down in a fire on the Fourth of July, 1963.

Andrew Wolf, of Greenport, led the museum’s fundraising effort and said it began two years ago by soliciting community feedback.

“We heard words like 'beacon,' 'icon' and 'treasure,'” Wolf said, adding that many people have an emotional attachment to the lighthouse.

The committee raised $690,000 from community donors and received two matching grants, including $293,840 from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation and $139,000 from New York’s Empire State Development organization.

Now, the group hopes to raise $2.5 million to complete a full restoration of the lighthouse that will include additional structural support, an expanded wraparound balcony, exhibition space, a new patio, restrooms and solar power.

Wolf, who said additional renovations could begin this fall, said they hope to make Bug Light more of a destination “so we can do things across the board that haven't been done before, not just come out and look.”

'A homing device'

Gwyneth Ketterer, of Orient, once spent the night at the lighthouse with her wife about a decade ago after winning the stay as a top prize at a local fundraiser.

She said it was an “incredible” experience, though they didn’t get much sleep as they observed wildlife, beach walkers and fishermen setting out in the wee hours.

Ketterer toured the lighthouse Thursday to see the renovations and praised the nonprofit’s preservation work.

“Bug Light is a homing device,” she said. “It’s the first thing you see coming into our harbor.”

Tours of the offshore lighthouse are included in the museum’s $75 lighthouse cruises, which run on Saturdays through the end of October. Visitors can go inside the lighthouse as part of the charterboat excursion.

Kimmel, in an interview, said one of her goals is to make the lighthouse more accessible to the public by hosting art, science and history exhibitions, music performances and environmental programs.