GSTC Sum07 Lighthouses - All Around Philly · Summer 2007 • Garden State Town & Country Living 59...
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Jersey Lights Artist David Frame’s pastels of six New Jersey lighthouses present these beautiful beacons from an unexpected angle by Bob Waite B By 1679 the peril of approaching New York Harbor through a low-lying area know as the Navesink Highlands led Edmond Andreus, governor of New York, to suggest that a lighthouse be built on Sandy Hook. Almost a centu- ry later, in 1761, after several shipwrecks, did the project get started. On June 11, 1764, the first American lighthouse was lit. It stood on the New Jersey coast keeping ships out of the Navesink Highlands and safely letting sailors know that the New York Harbor was beyond. The New Jersey Coast is not only home to the oldest lighthouses built on the North American continent, but is also home of some of the most beautiful. That’s what influ- enced Doylestown, Pennsylvania artist David Frame to paint six of them: Sandy Hook, Navesink, Sea Girt, Barnegat, Absecon, and Cape May, where the project really began. Below, a David Frame painting of people fishing off a jetty in Cape May.
Transcript of GSTC Sum07 Lighthouses - All Around Philly · Summer 2007 • Garden State Town & Country Living 59...
Jersey LightsArtist David Frame’s pastels of six
New Jersey lighthouses present these beautiful beaconsfrom an unexpected angle
by Bob Waite
BBy 1679 the peril of approaching New York Harborthrough a low-lying area know as the Navesink Highlandsled Edmond Andreus, governor of New York, to suggestthat a lighthouse be built on Sandy Hook. Almost a centu-ry later, in 1761, after several shipwrecks, did the project getstarted. On June 11, 1764, the first American lighthousewas lit. It stood on the New Jersey coast keeping ships outof the Navesink Highlands and safely letting sailors knowthat the New York Harbor was beyond.
The New Jersey Coast is not only home to the oldestlighthouses built on the North American continent, but isalso home of some of the most beautiful. That’s what influ-enced Doylestown, Pennsylvania artist David Frame to paintsix of them: Sandy Hook, Navesink, Sea Girt, Barnegat,Absecon, and Cape May, where the project really began.
Below, a David Frame painting of people fishing off a jetty in Cape May.
Summer 2007 • Garden State Town & Country Living 59
Sandy HookFirst lit on June 11, 1764, the lighthouse at Sandy Hook is the oldest American lighthouse.Historical accounts show that the need for a lighthouse at the tip of Sandy Hook was known acentury earlier and was suggested to governing authorities in 1679. The Sandy Hook Lighthouseis now designated as a National Historic Landmark and was restored in the spring of 2000.
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NavesinkThe Twin Lights of Navesink were built in 1828, replacing a beacon that was established on theHighlands, which was primarily used as a warning light, during the 1740s when the colonistswere concerned about the possibility of a French invasion. In 1841 Navesink became the first light-house to be equipped with a Fresnel lens. Now the lighthouse is owned by the State of New Jersey.
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Sea GirtThe dark space between Navesink and Barnegat was a matter of concern to the Lighthouse Board in the 1880s,who requested and got an appropriation of monies by Congress in 1889 to build a lighthouse somewhere in thisarea. An area south of Wreck Pond was examined and bought in 1895. The lighthouse became active onDecember 10, 1896. In 1921, Sea Girt Lighthouse was the first lighthouse to have its own radio signal.
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BarnegatCongress appropriated funds to build a lighthouse at Barnegat in 1834. The light was needed to protect ships passing theinlet at Barnegat, where shoals offshore create large breakers. Lieutenant George Meade, famous as the general who lednorthern troops to victory at Gettysburg, supervised the construction of a new first order light beginning in 1857. A stat-ue of General Meade was unvieled at the dedication of Barnegat Lighthouse State Park on July 11, 1957.
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AbseconDr. Jonathan Pitney petitioned for a lighthouse on Absecon Island unsuccessfully in 1820. It wasn’t until 1854that Congress saw a need to appropriate monies. Like the lighthouse at Barnegat, Lieutenant George Meadesupervised the construction of what became the tallest lighthouse in New Jersey. Absecon was lit on January 15,1857. Along with the lighthouse were built two dwellings, one for the head keeper and one for his assistant.
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Cape MayThe first lighthouse at Cape May Point was built in 1823, and the second was built in 1847. Thefirst was reclaimed and the second was poorly constructed and a report in 1851 showed the need tohave it replaced. The present lighthouse was first lit on October 31, 1859. In 1964 the lighthousegrounds were given to the State of New Jersey and became Cape May Point State Park.
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Cape May is second to SanFrancisco in having the mostrestored Victorian houses in theUnited States. And this was a drawfor David Frame, who has an artis-tic interest in Victorian architec-ture. It was on one of his architec-tural expeditions that he realizedthe aesthetic value of lighthouses.He and his wife Paula were stayingat a bed and breakfast. He said, “Wewere interested in the buildings ofCape May and all the ginger bread.I photographed the Victorian build-ings for reference. So, I got a lot ofgraphics material and a lot of close-up detail of the so-called ginger-bread. It was a rainy weekend. Iliked Cape May. We went to thelighthouse, and I really liked that.Going out to the point is interest-ing. There’s a concrete ship outthere—it sunk beyond the jetty and it’s kind of a landmarkthat people go and look at.”
David liked the Cape May lighthouse so much he decid-ed to visit more. “I decided at some point to start paintingthem. One of the lighthouses was different than all the oth-ers. I mean it’s really different. It’s called the Navesink TwinLights. It looks like a castle. At the time I was trying to fig-ure out what my approach to the paintings would be.Navesink made me think, since unless you were quite farfrom it, you couldn’t paint it accurately.”
David did a well-received series of drawings of the his-toric buildings in his hometown of Doylestown. “I wouldget up on higher buildings if I could get better depictionsin art or photography.” So David kept thinking about it,and he began talking to a friend, Alan Howarth, who is anart distributor and knows the area. David said to Alan, “Ithink the best thing to do is to see if we can find a way todo this by airplane.”
David was not really crazy about the idea of flying overlighthouses in a light aircraft, so he was relieved when Alanfound a pilot who both flew and took pictures. David said,“I don’t know that they would have been any different if Ihad been there myself. I told him what I wanted, what kindof view, the angle, and I’m not sure now what the angle was,but I think I asked something in the neighborhood of sixtydegrees. He did his best to accommodate me.”
David FrameAward winning BucksCounty artist DavidFrame works in multiplemedia and is adaptable toa wide range of subjectmatter. David hasreceived both local andnational awards for hiswork, which has beenshown in both Americanand international venues.David has been theartist-in-residence forBucks County Town &Country Living maga-zine since 1993.
