Brigantine's Lighthouse Turned 100, and It Was Never Meant to Guide Ships

The Brigantine Lighthouse was built in 1926 to sell real estate. It was never a working lighthouse and never warned a ship off a shoal or marked an inlet. A land company put it up to give buyers somewhere to aim for. Its slogan was "come to the lighthouse." One hundred years later the City of Brigantine and the Brigantine Chamber of Commerce gave it a birthday party on Saturday, October 10, 2026. At the same time, the oceanfront hotel built in the same push sits on Ocean Avenue, closed since mid-August.

These are the two big buildings left from Brigantine's founding pitch. One lasted a century because the town kept finding new uses for it. The other is now waiting for someone to decide what it becomes.

A sales office shaped like a lighthouse

In the 1920s the island was being sold as "the Twin Resort of Atlantic City," according to a Shore Local history of the structure. In 1926, Shore Local reports, the Island Development Real Estate Company built the lighthouse to draw people over to Brigantine Beach Island. The Brigantine Historical Society says the same thing in plainer words on the marker it put up beside the structure in 2017:

"This iconic symbol of Brigantine, NJ is not an actual working lighthouse but rather a monument or tourist attraction used to help in the sale of real estate on the island."

The marker text is on the Historical Marker Database. It gives the builder as The Island Development Company, a slightly different name from the one Shore Local uses. Both sources agree on the year and on the purpose.

Seen as a sales tool, the design makes sense. A lighthouse is the clearest symbol a seaside town can have. It shows up on a postcard and reads at once as "this is the shore." The developers didn't need it to work, only to be seen.

Every job it has had since

Once the lots were sold, its role as a sales tool was over, and the town kept finding it new work. The Historical Society's marker lists everything it has been used for since then, and Shore Local adds detail to several of them.

The police years tell you the most about how the town treated the building. The tiny structure had room for the city's few officers, Shore Local writes. When a call came in, someone switched on the light so officers out on patrol knew to come back. So the one time the lamp did signal anyone, it was signaling the police, not ships.

The steel door from the old holding cell has also lasted. It is on display at the Brigantine Historical Museum, about 100 yards from the lighthouse. The City lists the museum at 3607 Brigantine Boulevard, next to the Marine Mammal Stranding Center. It opened in 1992 through the work of the Brigantine Historical Society and town historian Howard "Fritz" Haneman. The museum began inside the lighthouse in the 1970s and moved out into its own building, and part of the lighthouse's past went with it.

What saved the structure in the end was people, not a deed. By the early 1990s it had fallen apart. Volunteers and local construction companies refurbished it in 1995 and again in 2013, and it came through both the Great Storm of 1962 and Hurricane Sandy. A building with no structural duty left lasted a hundred years because the town decided, twice, that it was worth paying to keep.

The party at the Circle

The centennial was planned for the lighthouse's own corner of town. In an announcement in the Brigantine Times the day before, Mayor Vince Sera said Brigantine Avenue would close from the Circle to 31st Street for a free block party from 4 to 8 p.m. It would have food trucks, vendors, local businesses and restaurants, and a beer garden run by the Brigantine VFW. DJ Jonny DiJoe, a local Brigantine DJ, was booked to play first, followed by the Undercover Band, an '80s cover band.

The mayor opened with a line that blurred the building and the town: "Brigantine is turning 100, and we're throwing a party!" For a structure built to stand for the whole island, that's close to its original brief. The City's event page now shows the celebration as past. The same Saturday morning, the Marine Mammal Stranding Center held its sixth annual Pup Strut on the 16th Street beach, so the date carried two community events.

The other building from the same pitch

The lighthouse was put up to bring buyers and visitors to the island, and the hotel was built to house them. A federal historic-properties plan prepared for an offshore wind review describes the Brigantine Hotel at 1400 Ocean Avenue as an Art Deco-inspired hotel built in 1926 and 1927, right on the beach. WFPG says the Brigantine Island Development Company built it in 1927 as the original Hotel Brigantine. That company name is close to, but not the same as, the names on the lighthouse records.

The hotel has had a second life as well, and it is less well known than the lighthouse's. WFPG reports that by 1940 it was running as a fully integrated hotel for all guests and staff. During the Second World War it was leased to the U.S. Coast Guard for $1 a year. Ownership later passed to a prominent Black entrepreneur who founded the Apex News and Hair Company and was influential in 1940s Atlantic City. That history is why the federal plan recommended the building as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. It describes the hotel as possibly the first to welcome Black guests and integrate New Jersey's beaches.

In the mid-2000s it became a timeshare, first under the Brigantine Inn and Celebrity Resorts names and then as Legacy Vacation Resorts - Brigantine Beach. WFPG reports that the building has been closed indefinitely since August 14, after both elevators stopped working. On August 28 the Brigantine Times reported that the property had ceased operations and would not reopen as a timeshare. The paper tied the decision to elevator, fire alarm and other safety concerns.

What comes next is not settled. The Times described a sale as likely and said it could involve a vote by timeshare owners or the dissolution of the timeshare association. It also described conversion to condos, rentals or apartments as possibilities, not plans. No sale, owner vote or redevelopment decision had been reported as of this writing. The paper's description of the building is precise, though. It called it a 91-unit Art Deco building and "the jewel of Brigantine."

One part of the property is still open. LaScala's Beach House, the Italian restaurant and bar at the property, is not affiliated with Legacy and is operating as usual. WFPG notes that it opened in 2023. For now it is the only part of the 1927 building still serving the public.

Two landmarks, one question

Taken together, the two buildings follow the same pattern. The lighthouse has been a sales prop, a police station, a jail, a gift shop and a museum. Each time one use ended, someone in town found the next, and when the structure wore out, volunteers rebuilt it. The hotel has been a resort, an integrated guest house, a wartime Coast Guard post and a timeshare. Its last use ended this summer, and the next owner or the timeshare owners will decide what follows.

The lighthouse got its street party this month. The hotel reaches its own centennial next year, and as of this writing nobody has announced what it will be by then.

The rest of the season keeps the island busy while that gets decided. The City lists the Brigantine Halloween Parade for Sunday, October 25, at 1 p.m. Brigantine CER's fall brochure lists more than 70 classes and activities, and copies are available at City Hall and the CER front desk. The lighthouse stays where it has been since 1926, at the Circle.

Holly Garber's work with historic houses centers on the question both of these buildings raise: what a well-built structure can become once its first purpose is over. If you own an older Brigantine property, or are weighing one with good bones and an uncertain next chapter, Holly Garber would welcome hearing what you have in mind. Begin the Conversation.