Jersey Lights

Artist David Frame’s pastels of six present these beautiful beacons from an unexpected angle

by Bob Waite

By 1679 the peril of approaching New York Harbor through a low-lying area know as the Navesink Highlands led Edmond Andreus, governor of New York, to suggest that a be built on Sandy Hook. Almost a centu- ry later, in 1761, after several shipwrecks, did the project get started. On June 11, 1764, the first American lighthouse was lit. It stood on the New Jersey coast keeping ships out of the Navesink Highlands and safely letting sailors know that the New York Harbor was beyond. The New Jersey Coast is not only home to the oldest lighthouses built on the North American continent, but is also home of some of the most beautiful. That’s what influ- enced Doylestown, Pennsylvania artist David Frame to paint six of them: Sandy Hook, Navesink, Sea Girt, Barnegat, Absecon, and , where the project really began. Below,B a David Frame painting of people fishing off a jetty in Cape May. Sandy Hook First lit on June 11, 1764, the lighthouse at Sandy Hook is the oldest American lighthouse. Historical accounts show that the need for a lighthouse at the tip of Sandy Hook was known a century earlier and was suggested to governing authorities in 1679. The Sandy Hook Lighthouse is now designated as a National Historic Landmark and was restored in the spring of 2000.

Summer 2007 • Garden State Town & Country Living 59 Navesink The Twin Lights of Navesink were built in 1828, replacing a beacon that was established on the Highlands, which was primarily used as a warning light, during the 1740s when the colonists were concerned about the possibility of a French invasion. In 1841 Navesink became the first light- house to be equipped with a Fresnel lens. Now the lighthouse is owned by the State of New Jersey.

60 Garden State Town & Country Living • Summer 2007 Sea Girt The dark space between Navesink and Barnegat was a matter of concern to the Lighthouse Board in the 1880s, who requested and got an appropriation of monies by Congress in 1889 to build a lighthouse somewhere in this area. An area south of Wreck Pond was examined and bought in 1895. The lighthouse became active on December 10, 1896. In 1921, Sea Girt Lighthouse was the first lighthouse to have its own radio signal.

Summer 2007 • Garden State Town & Country Living 61 Barnegat Congress appropriated funds to build a lighthouse at Barnegat in 1834. The light was needed to protect ships passing the inlet at Barnegat, where shoals offshore create large breakers. Lieutenant , famous as the general who led northern troops to victory at Gettysburg, supervised the construction of a new first order light beginning in 1857. A stat- ue of General Meade was unvieled at the dedication of State Park on July 11, 1957.

62 Garden State Town & Country Living • Summer 2007 Absecon Dr. Jonathan Pitney petitioned for a lighthouse on Absecon Island unsuccessfully in 1820. It wasn’t until 1854 that Congress saw a need to appropriate monies. Like the lighthouse at Barnegat, Lieutenant George Meade supervised the construction of what became the tallest lighthouse in New Jersey. Absecon was lit on January 15, 1857. Along with the lighthouse were built two dwellings, one for the head keeper and one for his assistant.

Summer 2007 • Garden State Town & Country Living 63 Cape May The first lighthouse at Cape May Point was built in 1823, and the second was built in 1847. The first was reclaimed and the second was poorly constructed and a report in 1851 showed the need to have it replaced. The present lighthouse was first lit on October 31, 1859. In 1964 the lighthouse grounds were given to the State of New Jersey and became Cape May Point State Park.

64 Garden State Town & Country Living • Summer 2007 Cape May is second to San Francisco in having the most restored Victorian houses in the United States. And this was a draw for David Frame, who has an artis- tic interest in Victorian architec- ture. It was on one of his architec- tural expeditions that he realized the aesthetic value of lighthouses. He and his wife Paula were staying at a bed and breakfast. He said, “We were interested in the buildings of Cape May and all the ginger bread. I photographed the Victorian build- ings for reference. So, I got a lot of graphics material and a lot of close- up detail of the so-called ginger- bread. It was a rainy weekend. I liked Cape May. We went to the lighthouse, and I really liked that. Going out to the point is interest- ing. There’s a concrete ship out there—it sunk beyond the jetty and it’s kind of a landmark that people go and look at.” David Frame David liked the so much he decid- Award winning Bucks ed to visit more. “I decided at some point to start painting County artist David them. One of the lighthouses was different than all the oth- ers. I mean it’s really different. It’s called the Navesink Twin Frame works in multiple Lights. It looks like a castle. At the time I was trying to fig- media and is adaptable to Cure out what my approach to the paintings would be. a wide range of subject Navesink made me think, since unless you were quite far matter. David has from it, you couldn’t paint it accurately.” David did a well-received series of drawings of the his- received both local and toric buildings in his hometown of Doylestown. “I would national awards for his get up on higher buildings if I could get better depictions work, which has been in art or photography.” So David kept thinking about it, shown in both American and he began talking to a friend, Alan Howarth, who is an art distributor and knows the area. David said to Alan, “I and international venues. think the best thing to do is to see if we can find a way to David has been the do this by airplane.” artist-in-residence for David was not really crazy about the idea of flying over Bucks County Town & lighthouses in a light aircraft, so he was relieved when Alan found a pilot who both flew and took pictures. David said, Country Living maga- “I don’t know that they would have been any different if I zine since 1993. had been there myself. I told him what I wanted, what kind of view, the angle, and I’m not sure now what the angle was, but I think I asked something in the neighborhood of sixty degrees. He did his best to accommodate me.”

Summer 2007 • Garden State Town & Country Living 65