{"nrhp_refnum":"08000231","name":"East Charity Shoal Light","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"NE. L. Ontario at US-Canada boundary 9.5 mi. SW. of Cape Vincent","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cape Vincent","county":"Jefferson County","state":"NY","lat":44.03864846300007,"lon":-76.48136354499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2008-03-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Maritime History","Transportation","Architecture","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An offshore lighthouse on East Charity Shoal in northeastern Lake Ontario, about 9.5 miles southwest of Cape Vincent, Jefferson County, New York, established in 1935 and about 56 feet tall.","why_significant":"It is significant for maritime history, transportation, architecture and engineering. It replaced lighted buoys on a hazardous shoal near the main shipping lanes to the St. Lawrence River. It is also an example of the Bureau of Lighthouses' program of building permanent, automated offshore lights in the Great Lakes, reusing a cast iron tower from Vermilion, Ohio.","narrative":"East Charity Shoal Light is an offshore lighthouse standing alone in northeastern Lake Ontario, roughly 9.5 miles southwest of Cape Vincent, New York, and close to the U.S.-Canada boundary. Established in 1935, it rises about 56 feet from a reinforced concrete pier set on a wooden crib in 14 feet of water. A one-story octagonal concrete deckhouse supports a three-story cast iron tower topped by a lantern. The light marks a shoal near the main shipping lanes between the St. Lawrence River and the Welland Canal. Earlier warnings there, a day beacon and later lighted buoys, proved vulnerable to ice, and a freighter ran aground on the shoal in 1897. In the early 1930s the Bureau of Lighthouses chose to build a permanent, automatically operated light instead. The tower reused cast iron sections from a storm-damaged lighthouse at Vermilion, Ohio. The structure keeps a high level of integrity and still operates as an automated navigation aid.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"No Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Owned by the U.S. Coast Guard and operated as an automated aid to navigation; described as retaining a high level of historic integrity.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:53.291214-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_AK/08000231.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75325039","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Charity_Shoal_Light","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5328070"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/jefferson-county/east-charity-shoal-light-08000231/"}