Crown Point, New York
Harbour Lights #356

The history of the first lighthouse at Crown Point dates back to 1858. The Lighthouse Board built a 55’ octagonal tower of gray limestone block with a Cape Cod cottage as a keeper’s dwelling in an effort “to enable vessels to pass with safety through the dark narrow channel of Chimney Point.” A fixed white light in a Fifth Order Fresnel lens stood 83’ above Lake Champlain and was visible for 15 miles. A “sister” to Point Au Roche Lighthouse and Windmill Point Lighthouse, the original Crown Point served faithfully for more than 50 years!

Lake Champlain was discovered by the explorer Samuel de Champlain on July 4, 1609. Approximately two years before the tricentennial celebration of this event, the states of Vermont and New York formed a committee to plan the events celebrating the great French explorer.

In 1910, with an appropriation of $50,000 remaining from the 1909 events and the approval of the Lighthouse Board, the Champlain Tercentenary Committee began the process of altering the stone tower into a neo-classical memorial. The plain limestone tower was replaced with eight Doric columns set on Fox Island granite from Maine. The columns surround the cylindrical shaft, holding the spiral staircase of the 1858 tower. The memorial and lighthouse were completed with an ornate cornice, parapet and an elaborate lantern room. A statue of Champlain, a French soldier and a Huron Indian, crafted by the American artist Carl Heber, faces the water.

On May 3, 1912, the people of France, through the president of the visiting French delegation, presented a bronze bust of Champlain by famed French sculptor Auguste Rodin, as a gift to be permanently set in the base of the monument. President William H. Taft presided over the formal dedication of the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse in ceremonies on July 5,1912.

The new lighthouse was operational for only a short time. Some sources report its deactivation in 1926 with replacement in 1929 by a skeletal tower standing 67’ above the water’s surface. The tower remained operational through the completion of the Crown Point Bridge crossing to Chimney Point, Vermont.

Today, Crown Point Memorial Lighthouse is part of New York’s Crown Point Reservation Campground with public access to the tower.