If you love visiting historic sites in the Jersey Shore, you will enjoy the Sea Girt Lighthouse. On March 2, 1889, Congress approved $20,000 for the establishment of a lighthouse in the vicinity of Squan Inlet. It would become the last live-in lighthouse to be built on the Atlantic Coast.

The site was chosen to be Sea Girt at Wreck Pond, deed dated July 29, 1895, on a 100 by 100 foot lot overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The lighthouse was positioned 19 miles south of Navesink Twin Lights, and 26 miles north of Barnegat Light. Completed one year later, the lighthouse was proudly commissioned, and its beacon was first illuminated on December 10, 1896. The lighthouse is part of an L-shaped Victorian building and it first shone in 1896.

Due to its location, it was originally (but incorrectly) called the Squan Inlet Lighthouse. The name was soon changed to Sea Girt Lighthouse on March 1, 1897.

Local secret:

The entire section of the coast now called Sea Girt was once known as Wreck Pond. No wonder, considering the countless shipwrecks over the years in the vicinity of the Manasquan River. One source estimates 92 assorted vessels foundered along the coast during the early 1890′s. Which was the original reason why the Sea Girt Lighthouse was originally commissioned.