{"nrhp_refnum":"78001855","name":"Rock Island Light Station","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of Fishers Landing on Rock Island","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fishers Landing","county":"Jefferson County","state":"NY","lat":44.280502194000064,"lon":-76.01711481599995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-11-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-building light station complex on Rock Island, a four-acre outcropping in the St. Lawrence River northwest of Fishers Landing in the town of Orleans, Jefferson County, New York. Most buildings date from 1882, with earlier and later additions.","why_significant":"The nomination argues that it is the only surviving complete lighthouse complex on the St. Lawrence River in northern New York. Of the six lights of the \"St. Lawrence String,\" only Rock Island retains both its tower and its auxiliary structures. It shows the self-contained life-support functions of an isolated island light station and represents river maritime life of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.","narrative":"Rock Island Light Station occupies a four-acre rock outcropping in the St. Lawrence River near Fishers Landing, Jefferson County. The complex has six buildings: a lighthouse, keeper's house, and carpenter's shop from 1882, a generator house from about 1900, a boat house from about 1920, and a fieldstone smokehouse that appears to date from 1847. The forty-foot limestone and plaster tower, reached by a masonry pier, carried a sixth order fixed white light. The keeper's house is a two and a half-story Shingle style frame building with a limestone foundation. The station is significant because it is the only complete lighthouse complex surviving on the St. Lawrence River in northern New York. Of the six federal lights known as the \"St. Lawrence String,\" only this one keeps its tower and support buildings. Together they show how a keeper and family lived at an isolated, self-sufficient post, and the State of New York maintains it as an example of that kind of facility.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Shingle style (keeper's house)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Removed from active service; maintained by the State of New York as an example of a self-sufficient light station. Condition listed as good. The light and its Fresnel intensifiers were removed in the 1940s.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.749774-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/78001855.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001855/dfee0ac3dd-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001855/dfee0ac3dd-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Oralrobert33","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rock_Island_Light_Station.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Oralrobert33</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rock_Island_Light_Station.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75318270","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Island_Light","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7354512"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/jefferson-county/rock-island-light-station-78001855/"}