>> Click to enlarge << New York’s Plum Island Lighthouse in Long Island ... Photo by: Laura Stone

The United States Department of Homeland Security is spending $1.5 million to stabilize the 1870 lighthouse that is located in Gardiners Bay, in Long Island Sound, near Orient, New York.

>> Click to enlarge << Plum Island Lighthouse near Orient, New York with ...

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the restoration work was done in compliance with the New York State Historic Preservation Office in a manner consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation.

>> Click to enlarge << Grover Cleveland is the only man, to date, to ...

The lighthouse was automated in 1978 and left abandoned to the elements, and it has been deteriorating ever since. Ownership of the lighthouse was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1981, which operates an animal disease research center on the island.

>> Click to enlarge << This early image of New York’s Plum Island ...

In 1994, its 4th order Fresnel lens was rescued from the lantern and is now on display at the East End Seaport Museum in Greenport, New York. In 2000, in an effort to stop erosion that was threatening the lighthouse, the nonprofit East End Lighthouses raised money to have 15,000 tons of rocks and boulders brought to the island to build up the shoreline and stop further erosion.

>> Click to enlarge << This close-up view of the lantern at Plum Island ... Photo by: Joseph Casey

The island and the lighthouse are closed to the public and will remain so, even after the restoration.

>> Click to enlarge << Side view of Long Island Sound’s Plum Island ... Photo by: Joseph Casey