If you’ve ever traveled on the Port Jefferson ferry you may have noticed a faint beacon in the distance just west of the harbor. Old Field Lighthouse is just what you are seeing as it stands guard over the dangerous cliffs of the area just west of Port Jefferson, NY.
Built: 1857
Opened: 1868
Automated: 1991
Material: Keepers House is made of Granite Ashlar Blocks the light tower is made of Glass & Iron
“A seaside matriarch attired in granite and crowned with iron. An elderly granite lady who watches over the Sound with her flashing eye of red and green.The presence of lightkeepers past is most evident here….the man who wore his brass-buttoned uniform with pride….the man who once tended the old Fresnel lens as though it were the rarest of jewels. Through nights of moonlight and nights of thundering skies this lady of granite with her flashing eye has saved both ships and souls. With her flashing light she’d call to the sailors and ships ‘TAKE CARE! TAKE CARE! STEER CLEAR…THE HARBOR IS NEAR!’ For decades she sat, deemed outmoded and old, her flashing eye shut, her soul in slumber. A new light nearby upon a tower of steel now flashed to the boats on the Sound, but it was only a tower of iron….no heart and no soul. Many years went by and again the “Granite Lady of the Sound” was once more the granite guardian of Old Field Point….her red and green eye a most welcome sight on a storm-tossed night!!”