Ludlam Beach New Jersey
Harbour Lights #362

The Lighthouse Board recognized the need for a light between Absecon, Atlantic City and Hereford in Wildwood to guide mariners along the thirty-three mile gap between these two lights along the New Jersey Shore.

In 1884, lots 15 and 16, Sea Isle City NJ, along Ludlam Beach were selected to build a lighthouse and Keeper’s dwelling, a one and a half story wood structure with a pitched roof. The total cost of land and building was $5,000. On the ocean side of the roof, a square tower supported a lantern room whose base was roughly even with the peak of the roof. A wooden seawall filled with sand and gravel was built to protect the light from high tides.

The Ludlam Beach Light was subjected to harsh treatment by winds, storms and hurricanes. A hurricane in September 1889 caused the old seawall to lose much of its filling and resulted in some of the walls of the lighthouse foundation to be undermined. The foundation walls were rebuilt, the chimney secured and a new wood seawall built.

Not even the concrete seawall, built in 1900, could withstand the beating of the severe seas and nor’easters. Superintendent J.T. Yates of the Lighthouse Service, exhausted by the continuous maintenance and the associated costs, petitioned that the Ludlam Beach be shuttered. Yates wrote: “This station is not a very important station and it is not considered that a great deal should be expended in protecting same, until more urgent cases have been cared for elsewhere”.

Lighthouse lore has it that it was not the rough seas that caused the light to be deactivated, but the Keeper’s pet! On November 21, 1923 the pet of Keeper Joshua H. Reeves knocked over a Kerosene lamp and a fire blazed. After serving mariners for forty-four years, the light was abandoned.

An impersonal skeletal tower with a minor beacon replaces the Ludlam Light having been moved to 31st and Landis.

Over the years, the Ludlam Beach Light has been moved, additions built and even used as a summer rental.

In 2006, a Philadelphia School Teacher, Charles Adams announced he would like to demolish the old Sea Isle structure and redevelop the property. Enter Robert Uhrmann, founder of the Friends of the Ludlam Beach Lighthouse, set to move the historic Light and restore it to its former grandeur. Adams is willing to donate the building to the group.

Today, The Friends are beginning to raise the necessary funds to restore the Light and return the Ludlam Beach Lighthouse to its original site and more importantly its former glory.