Saugerties Light Station: Lighthouse or Hotel? The Story Behind the Travel Photo
- Nov 9
- 7 min read
Saugerties Lighthouse:
Historic Light Station
Hotel
Tourist Attraction
Welcome to Saugerties, New York, located in the Catskills Region, Ulster County, New York.
As the NYC Traveler, I'm headed up this way on I-87 North from the New York City region. Like almost all of the 50 states of America, New York is divided into tourism regions. If I have time, I'll take the secondary roads that also go north, the ones that force you to drive slower, introducing you to the region, its towns, its landscape, detouring you away from shopping malls and outlets and its crowds.
Go past historic and iconic towns (some actually cities) such as Peekskill (yes, there really is a place, it wasn't just fiction from the television show "The Facts of Life"), Newburgh, Hyde Park and Poughkeepsie. If you're winding along Route 9W, the Hudson River is your guide. You reach Kingston, which, along with these other towns, had significance in the American Revolutionary War.
New York State, like many other states, is politically divided into counties, cities or towns, villages and hamlets. You reach the county of Ulster, originally called Esopus after the indigenous people who owned the land, people who were part of the Lenape. Indigenous, Dutch, English and German town names are sprinkled up here, giving a you history lesson of the county. Originally a much larger county, parts of Ulster were broken off to become parts of Otsego, Delaware, Orange, Greene and Sullivan counties.
The small town life spilled over into politics, with the county only getting a charter for the in 2006, finally an elected leader for the first time. But Ulster is keeping its small town charm: its "I Voted" sticker is designed from an annual contest, with a 14-year-old student winning one year.
Ulster County is popular with tourists, with New Yorkers (near and far) making up a huge part of the people who patronize favorite towns such as New Paltz, Kingston, and Woodstock. And one of these towns, right along the Hudson River sits the town of Saugerties, which has 1 village and about 12 hamlets. The one village is also called Saugerties and one of the hamlets is also called Saugerties. It may be confusing to visitors but not to the good residents of the town.
Saugerties is interesting because part of the town, like a lot of Ulster County is in Catskills Park. People who visit Catskills Park (and Adirondack Park, for the matter) are often surprised when they see the park. These two areas are designed as parkland in New York State, but roughly half of the parks are actually privately owned! These privately owned lands, areas, houses, farms, etc are called inholdings. These two parks are so large that there is a New York State agency whose main purpose is to manage them, the Forest Preserve. As you can guess, one of its main purposes is to keep the land wild. Logging was beginning to destroy these areas of upstate New York and by 1885, the preservation efforts became law. Why is all of this important and what does it have to do with Saugerties. Well, although the Forest Preserve is an agency of New York State, the state actually pays itself the property taxes on its own land! Small towns (and villages and hamlets) are relieved of that burden.
And although conservation is a noble thing, tourism helps to pay the bills and keep parks going and Saugerties Light Station as a tourist site and hotel is an interesting tale to tell. The question still remains: Saugerties Light Station: Lighthouse or Hotel?
Not only are these parks beautiful, making towns part of the park kind of preserves that small town look, making them quaint, charming and appealing to visit. I-87 gets you up to these areas fairly quickly from New York City and roads like NYS Route 32 and US Route 9W, which pass through the town, become meandering scenic routes that are lovely in spring and summer, a bit dangerous and treacherous in winter and absolutely gorgeous in autumn.
Like many small hamlets, villages and towns, Saugerties' access to the Hudson River adds to its charm. The river, in its heyday, was almost absolutely essential for towns to survive if they were not moving goods on land. Fun Fact: when the area was starting to be settled, the camp on the west side of the Hudson was called West Camp, which is one of the hamlets today. The town itself was organized out of Kingston, another charming place to visit. The town took the name of Saugerties in 1855.
The original Woodstock music festival held in 1969 was held on a farm in Bethel, NY, but it was Saugerties that hosted the 25th anniversary, Woodstock '94. If you want to visit the original farm or the town of Woodstock, Saugerties is a good place to stay. Explore the whole area. There's lots to do. And one of those places to visit is the Saugerties Lighthouse.
It's an interesting tourist attraction. The Hudson River originally had about a dozen or so lighthouses up and the waterway, which begins way up north in Newcombe at Henderson Lake and empties down into New York Bay between New York and New Jersey before the bay spills into the Atlantic Ocean 315 miles later.
Now, there are only seven left. One of them, Saugerties Lighthouse was originally built sometime between in 1835 and 1838, depending on what sources you find. There was a fire at some point in time, and the current structure dates to 1869.
Located on the Hudson River, in Saugerties, NY, the Saugerties Lighthouse is technically at the mouth of the Esopus Creek. At the time of the original construction, the future historic light station and hotel was important to guide water traffic away from the very shallow water of the creek so that ship and boats would not run aground or be shattered against rocks.
If you visit lighthouses regularly and read the labels by the exhibits, there is often much information about the types of lights, the history of the technology and the current light, if it is still operational. Saugerties Light Station is no different. Its place in lighthouse history is apparently significant enough for digitized postcards of the lighthouse to be in the Smithsonian. And the lighthouse is on the US Coastguard's list of Historic Lighthouses in New York.
Saugerties Light Station began operating with whale oil, progressing to mineral oil, after being rebuilt in 1850 because of an 1848 fire, to Fresnel lamps by 1854. It was rebuilt again in 1869 and automated by 1954. Automation of lighthouses made lighthouse keepers' jobs obsolete, so the actual building was closed up. More repairs and updates were made in the 1940's including electricity, steam heat and a telephone. But it was almost in vain: the Saugerties Lighthouse was almost demolished. In 1954, the Coast Guard automated the lights, and the lightkeeper job was eliminated, becoming obsolete. By 1964, the plans to destroy the lighthouse were announced. Ten years later, the Coast Guard wanted to close the lighthouse and actually made plans to demolish it.
Saugerties Light Station was not the only lighthouse in danger of no longer existing. Many lighthouses started becoming obsolete. Water traffic shifted from being a prime method of transportation to a more recreational use. The Hudson River was no exception. Factories closed, industries changed, horns were used instead of bells to warn water traffic and everything started to become operated by computer.
But, then by the 1970s, words like conservation, environmental and ecological became spelling words in elementary schools. Amidst the eternal quest for progress and a push for everything to become modern, historical societies and conservation groups were making sure that historical structures would survive. And one way for them to survive is to rebrand them.
The townspeople of Saugerties prevailed and the structure was saved. By 1979, it went from being almost demolished to being placed on the National Register of Historic Places. And, despite the fact that it was the Coast Guard that wanted to demolish it, they still had control over the lighthouse in 1985, but graciously (I would like to think) gave up that control over to New York State, who sold it to the Saugerties Lighthouse Conservancy for the sum of $1. Ironically, the Coast Guard actually recommissioned it in 1990.
Meanwhile, changes in the shoreline made it interesting to actually get to the lighthouse. While the lighthouse was originally operational, the structure had been moved to a stone pier, the harbor was made more accessible by dredging Esopus Creek around it and building a jetty. Still, the water can become very shallow (hence the need for the lighthouse in the first place). And shallow the water is.
You can visit the lighthouse. You can even stay overnight. It has become a two room bed and breakfast. The tourist attraction lighthouse is only accessible by boat or on foot. If you walk, you can only go when the tide is low. The water will cover the trail otherwise. Even if the trail is open, wear clothing that can get wet, dirty or muddy, just in case.
Park at the Ruth Reynolds Nature Preserve parking lot if you plan to hike the scant quarter mile. If the waters are too high, it will be closed off, so check the weather prior. Otherwise, the lighthouse can be seen if you're on a boat on the Hudson River. Observe all of the signs, rules and regulations but bring something to take photos with. It will be worth it.
We did not stay at the bed and breakfast. Theoretically, if you cannot drive directly to the front door, and if you do not arrive by personal boat, you will have to carry your bag the quarter mile along the wooden trail. I would recommend only a one or two night stay for the experience, if you are allowed to, although the website did not say that it limited how long you were allowed to stay.
You can only tour the inside if you are a guest staying at the lighthouse.
But even if you don't sleep there, visit. It will be worth it.
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All photos and videos created and copyrighted by Marcia Crayton, unless otherwise noted.
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