Light Hearted ep 293 – Michael Leahy and Joe Livolsi, Cedar Island, NY

Light Hearted

The badly rusted lantern was lifted off the building for restoration in 2013. (Courtesy of Friends of the Cedar Island Lighthouse)

Three-acre Cedar Island is on the South Fork of Long Island, New York, on the approach to Sag Harbor, which was a busy whaling port in the first half of the nineteenth century. A wooden lighthouse was established on Cedar Island in 1839, and it was replaced in 1868 by the granite lighthouse and keeper’s dwelling that still stands today. The lighthouse was discontinued in 1934 and was in private ownership until 1967, when it was purchased by Suffolk County and incorporated into a park.

In 1974 the interior of the building was gutted by a fire. In 2002, Friends of the Cedar Island Lighthouse began working with Suffolk County Parks to restore the lighthouse. There are two guests in today’s episode. Joe Livolsi is a board member of the Friends of Cedar Island Lighthouse, and Michael Leahy is the chairman of the organization.

The great hurricane of September 1938 created a sandbar that connected Cedar Island to the mainland, and it remains attached today. (Courtesy of Friends of the Cedar Island Lighthouse)