{"nrhp_refnum":"74001259","name":"Genesee Lighthouse","other_names":["Genesse Lighthouse and Keeper's House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"70 Lighthouse St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Rochester","county":"Monroe County","state":"NY","lat":43.25283634300007,"lon":-77.61084201999995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1974-08-13","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Transportation","Communications"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A lighthouse and keeper's house on a bluff above the mouth of the Genesee River in the Charlotte area of Rochester, Monroe County, New York. The octagonal limestone tower dates from 1822 and the brick keeper's house from 1863.","why_significant":"The 1822 tower illustrates the earliest vintage of light stations built in New York State. It remains a landmark in the history of Great Lakes navigation and of the Port of Rochester. It is one of the surviving Lake Ontario lighthouses on the American shore.","narrative":"On a bluff above the mouth of the Genesee River, in Rochester's Charlotte neighborhood, stands an octagonal limestone lighthouse completed in 1822. The tower is eighty feet tall, with walls six feet thick at the base that are now covered in ivy. An iron door opens to a spiral iron stairway and a ladder leading to an observation platform. Beside it is a brick keeper's house of 1863, which replaced a smaller stone house. It is two and a half stories, three bays wide, with stone lintels, a single chimney and a gable roof. The federal government bought the site in 1822 for a port surrounded by marshland and a partly blocked river entrance, and William Carroll built the light for $5,000. Later piers carrying lights and fog bells proved more effective, yet the lighthouse operated until 1902. It is valued as an early New York light station and a landmark of Lake Ontario navigation and the Port of Rochester.","period_of_significance":"19th and 20th centuries; specific dates 1822 (tower) and 1863 (house)","architect_builder":"William Carroll, a Braddock's Bay resident, built the limestone light","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as excellent and altered, on its original site. The tower operated until 1902, and the 1863 keeper's house is still an official Coast Guard residence.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.673905-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/74001259.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001259/42f31fc45a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/74001259/42f31fc45a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Matthew D. Wilson (LtPowers)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rochester_-_Charlotte-Genesee_Lighthouse.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Matthew D. Wilson (LtPowers)</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rochester_-_Charlotte-Genesee_Lighthouse.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75318828","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte%E2%80%93Genesee_Lighthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5086268"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/monroe-county/genesee-lighthouse-74001259/"}