Barnegat Light Museum

Barnegat Light Museum At A Glance...

The original first-order Fresnel lens from Barnegat Lighthouse is on display here, taken out of the tower when the light was decommissioned in 1927.
An English cast iron kettle used to boil salt water down for salt on the nearby marshes before the American Revolution.
A life preserver from an oil tanker sunk off this coast by German submarines in 1942.
The museum is in a one-room schoolhouse that taught local children until 1951 and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
The award-winning Edith Duff Gwinn Garden around the museum is open dawn to dusk all year, and the museum calls it an outdoor natural history museum.
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New Jersey Shore Region Ocean County

About Barnegat Light Museum

The Barnegat Light Museum fills the borough's old one-room schoolhouse, near Barnegat Lighthouse at the northern tip of Long Beach Island. The main attraction is the lighthouse's original first-order Fresnel lens, the large glass lens that once sat at the top of the tower.

The rest of the collection comes mostly from donations by townspeople. Displays cover the lighthouse and its keepers, maritime history, shipwrecks, the Coast Guard, the fishing industry, decoys, trains, airships, the island's old hotels, and historic photographs and postcards. There is also a section on the schoolhouse itself. Volunteer docents welcome visitors in summer and are glad to talk local history.

Outside, the Edith Duff Gwinn Garden is kept by The Garden Club of Long Beach Island and is open to walk through whenever the museum is closed. Admission to the museum is free. It is run by the Barnegat Light Historical Society and is one of the stops on the Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey each October.

Amenities:
- Gardens
Park Type:
- Gardens / Arboretum
- Historic Area
Attractions:
- Museum / Gallery

Contact / Location

Primary Address:

Get Directions 501 Central Avenue
Barnegat Light, New Jersey 08006

Contact:

A Brief History

The building opened in 1903 as the one-room school for Barnegat Light and taught the children of the northern end of Long Beach Island until 1951. In 1954 it was dedicated as the town's museum. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 for its importance in education.

The Barnegat Light Historical Society was started by a few women in town who filled the museum with memorabilia donated by their neighbors. Its mission is to preserve the world of yesterday and today for future generations.

The headline piece came from Barnegat Lighthouse. The first-order Fresnel lens was taken out of Barnegat Lighthouse when the light was decommissioned in 1927, and it now sits in the museum. The last keeper to tend it, Clarence Hazelton Cranmer, served at the lighthouse from 1883 to 1926. The collection also tells the story of Caleb Parker, known as Uncle Cale, who is credited with saving Cranmer from drowning in 1870, when Cranmer was nine.

Special / Seasonal Events

The Winter Open House is held every year on Presidents Day weekend. The Summer Wine and Cheese Open House Party is on the last Sunday in August, from 4 pm to 7 pm, and everyone is welcome.

The museum is also a stop on the Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey, held on the third weekend of October. The Challenge links 11 lighthouse sites, 4 lifesaving stations and this museum over two days. It charges a $10 registration fee that gets you a souvenir from each site.

Admission & Guidelines

Admission is free. The historical society that runs the museum takes memberships and donations through its website.

Hours / Season of Operation

The museum is open from 10 am to 4 pm, on weekends in June and September and daily except Monday in July and August. The garden is open every day of the year, dawn to dusk.

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