Brigantine’s Lighthouse was never a working lighthouse.
It was constructed in 1926 by the Island Development Real Estate Company to attract people to the new & up and coming beach town nicknamed “the Twin Resort of Atlantic City”. Their slogan was “come to the lighthouse”.
We should all jump into our time machine to visit Island Development Real Estate Company at the lighthouse and buy a few blocks in Brigantine
Later in the 1930’s the Brigantine Lighthouse became the town police station. At that time the city only had a few officers. If they had a call, they’d turn the light on. That would alert officers to return to the station.
The steel door of the holding cell is on display at the Historical Museum.
The lighthouse also served as a gift shop and in the 70’s was the original location of the Historical Museum.
Following Hurricane Sandy the city’s manpower and resources already were committed to the larger tasks of clearing streets, repairing bulkheads and supervising reconstruction. So City Engineer Ed Stinson and other officials consulted with a number of contractors to work out the scope of the lighthouse project in advance of a request for repair bids.
Every local contractor Volunteered their skills and time to repair Brigantine’s lighthouse.
Today the City is working with the county to potentially redesign the traffic pattern around the century old lighthouse.
Lighthouses were built to guide mariners through storms, sometimes they guide communities.
Credit Real Brigantine.
