Volunteers tearful as Shore-area lighthouse abruptly shutters, to be reopened later by the state

The volunteer group helping operate the East Point Lighthouse along New Jersey’s scenic bayshore made a decision over the weekend to clear out the historic structure and stop operations, fearing the state was getting ready to change locks as the result of a long-standing lease dispute.

A tearful Nancy Patterson, volunteer president of the Maurice River Historical Society, which operates the lighthouse, said Monday morning that local residents showed up to help in what was to otherwise have been a joyous day.

“On Saturday, we were supposed to be celebrating the 175th anniversary of the lighthouse,” Patterson said, choking up. “Instead we were moving out.”

Patterson and the historical society have been tussling with the state since 2017 over terms of a new lease. The fully restored lighthouse, built in 1849, is perched on the state-owned Heislerville Wildlife Management Area in Cumberland County, which the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) manages.

However, the DEP later Monday said it plans to soon reopen the lighthouse, but under state management.

The DEP sent The Inquirer a statement saying that it had granted a series of extensions that allowed the historical society to operate the lighthouse until Sept. 6 through East Point Light LLC, which is registered to Patterson. Negotiations were unsuccessful.

“The DEP will not be offering another extension as East Point Light LLC has declined to sign the lease agreement,” the statement said.

» READ MORE: Lighthouse operator is battling not only rapid bayshore erosion, but the State of New Jersey

The historic brick structure is the second oldest surviving lighthouse in New Jersey after the Sandy Hook Lighthouse. It has withstood decades of storms, vandalism, and a disastrous 1971 fire. After the fire, the Maurice River Historical Society led an $850,000 restoration effort along with the Cumberland County Improvement Authority and the New Jersey Historic Trust.

The historical society began managing the lighthouse in the 1990s under a lease of the small property in Cumberland County at the confluence of the Delaware Bay and Maurice River.

It took decades for the society to raise the money and restore the lighthouse, which reopened in 2017 with a functional blinking red beacon that pulses over the water each night as a navigational aid serviced by the U.S. Coast Guard. Up until this past weekend, the lighthouse had been open to public tours complete with 19th-century period furniture and artifacts to give people a sense of what it was like to live there.

East Point Lighthouse is tucked at the end of a dirt road on a remote stretch near the end of the state where horseshoe crabs and birds outnumber people. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

However, erosion has eaten away three-quarters of the beach in front of the lighthouse since the 1940s. In 2019, the DEP installed a 570-foot-long geotextile system that includes an 8-foot-diameter tube made of a durable synthetic membrane filled with sand. It runs parallel to the shore to help protect the lighthouse.

The society and East Point Light LLC has continued to operate the lighthouse after the original lease expired in 2017. In 2021, the state instead issued the organization an operating license. But that license expired in 2023 and the state once again wanted a lease. The sides couldn’t come to terms, though operations were allowed to continue under a special license.

The issue came to a head last week, Patterson said, when local officials told her the DEP was not going to renew the special license, which had just expired.

“We took the lighthouse from a burned-out shell, and bad condition to beautifully restored,” Patterson said Monday by phone. “We opened it to the public and it was very successful with tourism. It’s a historic treasure. But we’ve been treated badly, with a whole bunch of lies and excuses.”

Among the issues are projects the Maurice River Historical Society wants to complete but the state won’t approve, Patterson said. In the meantime, Patterson, a former Philadelphia resident, said it was “costing us a fortune” to keep operations going, including the running of two sump pumps and a dehumidifier, as well as paperwork that required the review of attorneys.

She said the group should not have to pay rent, given that they restored the lighthouse, made it functional, maintained it, and created a successful tourist attraction without any help from the state. An adjacent gift shop sells lighthouse-related items, including paintings by Patterson, an artist.

However, the DEP said in its statement that it had spent “more than a year of extensive lease negotiations and attempts by DEP to address East Point Light LLC’s concerns as the new lessee, which included the abatement of the 5 percent rental payment of its gross revenue through an approved list of improvements to the lighthouse.”

Patterson declined to sign the lease agreement by the Sept. 6th deadline, the DEP said. The state was seeking a list of improvements East Point LLC would have been responsible for, according to the statement. The DEP said it would cost East Point Light about $2,500 a year for the improvements in exchange for holding events, fundraising, and selling merchandise at the property.

The DEP said it was giving the historical society two weeks to remove all items in preparation for the state to take over over management of the site. After that, the DEP will reopen public access with similar hours. East Point Light LLC will have the opportunity to be recognized as a “Friends Group” and remain involved.

State Sen. Michael Testa Jr. called the lighthouse, “a vital piece of New Jersey’s maritime history,” and faulted DEP’s “lack of urgency” regarding the property, adding, ”the state needs to step up and ensure that the public will continue to enjoy this attraction for many years to come.”

Patterson said she was surprised at the outpouring of help over the weekend as people began pulling up with trucks.

“I said that anyone who can show up quick, has a truck, and strong muscles is welcome,” Patterson said. “I could not believe the response. They pulled up in trucks and box trucks, with little children helping. They didn’t just come Friday night, but the next day, and the next day. We had to rent storage units to put things in. It’s going to cost us a fortune. But we are doing everything we can in hopes we can keep the stuff safe.”

She said she’d like the state to revert back to the terms under the group’s original lease dating to 1996. She also said her group has been treated differently, and with bias, than groups operating other lighthouses in the state.

“The bottom line is, I would not sign the lease agreement they were offering,” Patterson said. “It’s horrible and very lopsided. It would be very hard for us to survive under those terms.”

Patterson said she’s holding out hope things can change, possibly under a different administration. Gov. Phil Murphy’s term ends in 2026.

“We’re not giving up,” Patterson said.