On the quiet shoreline of Lake Lenape in Mays Landing stands a lighthouse that has never guided a ship home.
There is no rocky coastline here, no ocean fog and no freighters searching for a safe harbor. Instead, the 65-foot tower was built for a much more whimsical purpose: to fill a popular South Jersey amusement park with music.
For years, hymns and gospel music floated from speakers near the top of the Lake Lenape Lighthouse, earning the unusual landmark the nickname “the Singing Tower.”
Today, the music is gone, but the lighthouse remains a weathered reminder of the days when Lake Lenape was one of the region’s favorite summer playgrounds.
Its story begins long before the tower rose above the water.
From mill pond to summer destination
Lake Lenape itself is man-made, created by damming the Great Egg Harbor River. The first dam at the site was constructed around 1844 by Jeremiah Stull, flooding roughly 300 acres and creating what was initially called Mays Landing Pond. The water would later help power local industry, including a cotton mill.
By the early 20th century, however, the lake was becoming known just as much for recreation.
According to the Township of Hamilton Historical Society, the story of Lenape Park as a public gathering place began in 1907, when the Rev. McCormick, who later became the first pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church, approached the Leiling family about allowing church picnics on their lakefront property.
The outings proved popular, attracting churches from as far away as Philadelphia. In 1910, the Leilings officially opened Lake Lenape Park.
A newspaper account from July 1911 shows just how quickly the park became a community destination. Hundreds of people reportedly arrived for Fourth of July festivities by boat, wagon, bicycle and on foot, enjoying music, boating, dancing, a baseball game and fireworks.
Vintage advertisements later promoted Lenape Park as the “Ideal Picnic and Amusement Park of South Jersey.” Visitors could swim, canoe and boat, while the property also boasted bathing houses, amusement rides and a large roller-skating rink.
Against that backdrop, the Leiling family decided the park needed something unforgettable.
Building an island — and a lighthouse
In 1939, the Leilings commissioned Herman Dehn Sr. to build a lighthouse at the park.
The first challenge was that there was nowhere to put it. Dehn created a small artificial island in the lake, using concrete and drums to establish a foundation beneath the water.
During the winter, dirt was piled onto the frozen lake above it. When the ice melted in spring, the soil dropped into place around the foundation.
Using largely hand tools and receiving occasional help from local children, Dehn constructed a five-story, roughly 65-foot wooden lighthouse. The ambitious project took four years, with the tower completed around 1943. A semi-spiral staircase connected its floors.
But unlike the lighthouses lining New Jersey’s coast, Lake Lenape’s tower was never designed as an aid to navigation.
Its attraction was sound rather than light.
Speakers mounted high on the structure broadcast hymns and gospel music over the lake, creating the “Singing Lighthouse” or “Tower of Music.” The songs could be heard by families swimming, boating and picnicking around the resort.
The novelty helped make the lighthouse famous beyond Mays Landing. Lighthouse Digest reported that postcards advertising the Singing Lighthouse circulated far beyond South Jersey.
Imagine a summer evening at Lenape Park in the 1940s or 1950s: swimmers coming out of the water, families gathered around picnic tables, boats moving across the lake and music drifting from a lighthouse that did not need a beacon because it had a voice.
For a generation of visitors, that was part of summer in Mays Landing.
When the Singing Tower went silent
The Leiling era eventually came to an end.
The park was sold to Ed and Winnie Young around 1960 or 1961. The Young family continued operating Lenape Park, and in 1973 reopened its indoor roller-skating rink after an earlier rink had been destroyed by fire.
But Mays Landing was changing. As development increased around the lake, the music that had once been considered part of the park’s charm apparently became less welcome.
Neighbors complained about the sound, and local officials eventually directed that the music be stopped. The Singing Lighthouse lost its voice.
The tower remained, though, taking on a different role in local life.
Lighthouse Digest reported in 1999 that children of the Young family sometimes spent summer nights inside the lighthouse. In later years, the structure was used primarily to store boating and beach equipment.
Meanwhile, generations continued associating the lighthouse with Lenape Park. It appeared in local publications, served as a landmark for boaters and rowing events and became a backdrop for weddings and photographs.
An aging South Jersey landmark
As the decades passed, maintaining the unusual wooden structure became increasingly difficult.
Ownership of the park changed again beginning in 1999, and Atlantic County ultimately acquired the property.
By the 2010s and early 2020s, preservation advocates were raising alarms about the lighthouse’s deteriorating condition. A group known as Friends of the Lighthouse sought money for restoration, while estimates for significant repairs climbed into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Whatever its structural future, Atlantic County still recognizes the tower as one of Lake Lenape Park East’s defining features. The county’s current park information lists a “Historic Lighthouse” among the park’s amenities.
The surrounding park has changed significantly from the amusement destination visitors knew a century ago.
Today, Lake Lenape Park East and West together encompass nearly 2,000 acres. The county maintains recreational opportunities including fishing, boating, playgrounds, picnic areas and pavilions.
The lake itself remains central to Mays Landing life, just as it was more than a century ago.
The lighthouse that didn’t need a light
South Jersey has no shortage of famous lighthouses. Cape May, Absecon and Barnegat all tell stories of shipwrecks, maritime travel and keepers watching the horizon.
Lake Lenape’s lighthouse tells another kind of story. It is the story of the era when families traveled to local amusement parks for an entire summer day, when church picnics drew hundreds of people and when swimming, roller skating, canoeing and dancing could turn a lake in Mays Landing into a regional vacation destination.
And it is the story of a builder who spent four years creating an island and erecting a five-story tower for a lighthouse that never needed to shine.
For decades, its purpose was simply to make a summer evening on Lake Lenape a little more memorable.
