Robbins Reef Light Station

About this property

The Robbins Reef Light Station is a sparkplug lighthouse located off Constable Hook in Bayonne, Hudson County, New Jersey, United States, along the west side of Main Channel, Upper New York Bay. The tower and integral keepers quarters were built in 1883. It replaced an octagonal granite tower built in 1839. The U.S. Coast Guard owned and operated the light station until the 2000s. The light is located on a small ridge of sand named Robyn's Rift by the Dutch settlers of the area. The reef is now called Robbins Reef. It is situated near the entrance to the Kill van Kull, a strait connecting New York Bay to Newark Bay. The channel is one of the most heavily used in the Port of New York and New Jersey, accessing Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal. The name derives from the New Netherland era of the 17th century. In Dutch rob or robyn means seal, groups of which would sometimes lie on the reef at low tide. The structure is also called Kate's Light for Kate Walker who operated the station alone after the death of her husband Captain John Walker in 1886, until 1919. She rowed her children to school in Bayonne. Herman Westgate was the last keeper of the lighthouse before it was finally automated. In 2009 Robbins Reef was put up for sale under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. In 2011, the Noble Maritime Collection, a maritime museum on Staten Island, was granted stewardship of the light station by the U.S. General Services Administration. In 2011, ownership was transferred to the Noble Maritime Collection based at Sailors' Snug Harbor in Staten Island, through the terms of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. Recently museum volunteers have been restoring the lighthouse, with the interior restoration nearly complete. Miller’s Launch, a local launch tug, and spill response team provides periodic transportation for the volunteers. Total renovations are expected to be complete in the early 2020s, at which time the lighthouse will offer tours and even serve as a bed and breakfast. National Register of Historic Places listings in Hudson County, New Jersey Noble Maritime Collection virtual tour of Robbins Reef Light Station Robbins Reef Data for station ID 8530973, Physical Oceanographic Real-Time System NOAA. Robbins Reef Light Archived 2006-09-06 at the Wayback Machine in NPS. Kate Walker, Keeper of Robbins Reef Light, 1894–1919, National Lighthouse Museum, 2001. Robbins Reef Lighthouse Lighthouses of the New Jersey Shore. Mind the Light, Katie: The History of Thirty-three Female lighthouse Keepers, Mary Louise Clifford and J. Candace Clifford, 2006. (ISBN 0-9636412-7-1)

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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