HUDSON, N.Y. — The race is on to keep a 150-year-old lighthouse from crumbling into the Hudson River.
Wooden pilings beneath Hudson-Athens Lighthouse are deteriorating, and the structure — built in the middle of the river when steamboats still plied the water — is beginning to shift. Cracks are apparent on the brick building and its granite foundation. While there are other endangered lighthouses around the nation, the peril to this one 100 miles north of New York City is so dire, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed Hudson-Athens on its 2024 list of the country's 11 most endangered historic places.
Advocates say if action isn't taken soon, yet another historic lighthouse could be lost in coming years. "All four corners will begin to come down, and then you'll have a pile of rock in the middle. And ultimately it will topple into the river," Van Calhoun of the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society said during a recent visit.
A ship passes the Hudson Athens Lighthouse on June 12 in Hudson, N.Y. The society is trying to quickly raise money to place a submerged steel curtain around the lighthouse, an ambitious preservation project that could cost as much as $10 million.
Their goal is to save a prominent symbol of the river's centurieslong history as a busy waterway. While the Hudson River was once home to more than a dozen lighthouses, only seven still stand. Elsewhere, there's a similar story of lost history.
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