Tinicum Island Range Rear Light Station

Tinicum Island Range Rear Light Station is significant for its association with the efforts of the federal government to provide an integrated system of navigational aids throughout the United States and to provide for safe maritime transport in and around the Delaware River and Bay. The Tinicum Island Range lights are part of one of the most extensive system of range lights in the world, and part of the only triangulated range on the Delaware River. From the eighteenth century to the present, the Delaware River and Bay has served as a major transportation corridor for commercial maritime traffic between the Atlantic Ocean and the city of Philadelphia and other inland ports in the states of Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Tinicum Island Range Lights also served vessels navigating between Delaware River ports and the Chesapeake Bay by way of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. The lights of the Delaware River and Bay also aided in the nation's defense by guiding U.S. Navy vessels safely to and from the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
This light tower embodies the distinctive characteristics and method of construction typifying range light construction on rivers and bays during the second half of the nineteenth century. Erected in 1880, Tinicum Island Range Rear Light is classified as a cast iron skeletal structure with a central cylinder. Rubble stone masonry foundations support the Classical Revival entrance pavilion and tower, as well as each leg of the hexagonal framework. Tinicum Island Range Rear Light is one of only two skeletal-frame lighthouses existing in New Jersey today. The other is Finn's Point Range Rear Light in Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. It is further distinguished as the only remaining skeletal-frame New Jersey lighthouse built of cast iron; Finn's Point was constructed of wrought iron. This property's integrated entrance pavilion at the tower's base with its enclosed pediments, comer pilasters, and wide cornice, reflects a nationwide late nineteenth century preference for Classical Revival architectural styling. At the same time, its cast iron building material signals technological progression and the succeeding period of lighthouse development.

Tinicum Island Range Rear Light Station meets the registration requirements outlined in the multiple property documentation form “Light Stations of the United States" (Clifford 2002). Though the station's original property has been compromised both in terms of design and setting through the removal of associated buildings and structures, and the development of recreational and residential facilities adjacent to the light station, the light tower retains its integrity in regard to location, materials, workmanship and feeling. The tower's existing appearance is remarkably unchanged from its period of significance, both on the exterior and interior. The Tinicum Island Range Rear Light continues to operate as a federal aid to navigation in the same manner it did during its period of significance. It is identified as number 3290 on the current Coast Guard Light List (U.S. Coast Guard 2004:33).