Rondout Lighthouse
Opens for the Season
Memorial Day Weekend

Boat rides to the Rondout Lighthouse
from Kingston City Public Docks

Rondout Lighthouse More lighthouse pictures

Boat trips and tours of the historic Rondout lighthouse will begin Memorial Day weekend on Saturday, May 28th, from the Kingston City Public Docks.

Trips, including a boat cruise and lighthouse tour, are scheduled for 12:15 pm & 2:00 pm on Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Cost: $15/Adult; $12/children under 13. Tours are operated by Mid-Hudson Estuarine Service, Inc.

Private Charters & Parties: The vessel “Dirigo” will be available to transport private groups to the Rondout Lighthouse for private tours or other city permitted activities. Cost is $200/hr, plus additional fees for use of lighthouse. For more information: 845-336-8145

The lighthouse is located on the Hudson River at the mouth of Rondout Creek, a short boat trip from the Kingston City Public Docks. Access to the lighthouse is provided by the Dirigo, a 58-passenger enclosed, heated marine vessel.

Boat Tours of the Rondout Lighthouse

Directions to Kingston City Public Docks

History of the Rondout Lighthouse

A Light to Remember, the Rondout Lighthouse
Kingston Freeman, My 9, 2005

Mid-Hudson Estuarine Service, Inc.
to provide service to the Rondout lighthouse
Kingston Freeman, March 3, 2005

The Rondout Lighthouses
The first Kingston Lighthouse was built in 1837, a wood structure which was badly damaged by ice and weather and became unsafe for the keeper and her family. A second lighthouse of brick and stone was constructed in 1867 on the south side of the creek. This second light was abandoned in 1915 when the present dikes were constructed at the Creek's entrance. Demolished in 1954 when its roof collapsed, the second lighthouse's stone footings are still visible today beyond the breakwater. In 1913 construction started on a new lighthouse, which is the structure known to area residents today as the Rondout Lighthouse. The largest and last 'family' light built on the Hudson River, the third Rondout Lighthouse, was first lit on August 25, 1915.

Rondout, Port of Kingston
Rondout is the port of Kingston. It has been a section of the city of Kingston since 1872, but was once a thriving independent town with its own port, industries, schools, and post office. In 1828, just three years after the opening of the Erie Canal, the Wurts brothers of Pennsylvania built the Delaware & Hudson (D&H) Canal and begin to transport anthracite, or hard, coal from eastern Pennsylvania to the Rondout by canal to reach the huge market of New York City.

Rondout the village jumped into existence rapidly with the arrival of the D&H Canal and its coal. Not only did the facilities for unloading and transshipping the coal appear, but also all the support businesses that went with the new industry like boat building, supply businesses of all types, banks, and saloons. During the heyday of the D&H Canal, the population of Rondout reached and surpassed that of its sister village of Kingston. Rondout was the most important port between New York and Albany.

The burgeoning maritime activity necessitated the building of a lighthouse at the mouth of the Rondout Creek to warn captains of the dangers of the shore and the shallow tidal fiats. The first Rondout lighthouse was a frame building located on the southern shore of the creek's mouth built ca. 1837. In a 1979 interview Pearl Rightmeyer (then 88 years old), granddaughter of the Murdocks, (early lightkeepers) recalls "Not long after my grandmother (Catherine Murdock) took over (the duties of the lightkeeper) a freshet came up and boats came loose at Eddyville and came down the creek. One of the bowsprits came right through the wall of the dining room when my grandmother was in it. Luckily she wasn't killed. That was when they decided to build a stone lighthouse."

Foundation of old lighthouse beyond the breakwater

A replacement lighthouse was built in 1867 at the same location using bluestone. (The foundation of this Rondout Light is still visible as one travels the creek by boat.) It was described as having on the first floor a parlor, a dining room, hall and supply room. The second floor sported three bedrooms and the watch room with steps leading to the light tower.

As traffic in and out of Rondout increased, the Army Corps of Engineers extended the dikes at Rondout further into the river and this Rondout Light no longer marked the entrance to the creek. Plans were then made to build a new light on the north side of the creek's entry. The new light, constructed of buff colored brick, was completed in 1915. This new light was in a better position to mark the harbor entrance.

Kingston Acquires the Rondout Lighthouse
In November, 2000, President Clinton signed into law a bill affecting the ownership of about 500 lighthouses across the nation, including the Rondout Lighthouse. This law set up a detailed process for transferring ownership of the lighthouses from the U.S. Coast Guard to new owners.

On June 19, 2002, the ownership of the Rondout Lighthouse was transferred to the City of Kingston. Mayor James Sottile accepted the deed from the U.S. Coast Guard in a ceremony that included local and national political leaders and representatives from the National Park Service, America Heritage Rivers, and Hudson River Greenway.

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