Less Is More

The gift shop and offices proposed by the Montauk Historical Society at the Montauk Lighthouse is a classic example of gilding the lily, and perhaps worse. The lily, in this case, is not just the Lighthouse, but the steep green slope of Turtle Hill on which it stands and the sight of the vast Atlantic beyond. To add this new construction to a national landmark in a wild and lonely place would be a mistake.

If built, the 2,565-square-foot building would be the largest structure on the site. The East Hampton Town Planning Board was recently told that the idea was to funnel people who are not interested in visiting the museum itself through the society's gift shop. A poor reason indeed, given a historical society's mandate to preserve and interpret the past. Money raised by gift shop sales ought not outweigh the mark this structure would make on the landscape.

The Lighthouse, its outbuildings, and surrounding land are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This makes any change there subject to review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. Changes to the site apparently also require approval by the state and the Department of the Interior.

Thanks to an involved community, the Montauk Historical Society and its active Lighthouse committee have been able to preserve the Lighthouse and the bluffs that support it. They have taken an aging keeper's house and created an exhilarating, first-rate museum.

Isn't it wrong to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an addition that will intrude on the landscape? Couldn't the society ask for and win the concession at the existing state building just to the north? For that matter, why expand an indoor virtual display of Montauk history, as proposed, when the trails, beaches, and historic sites of the real Montauk are only a short guided tour away?

The thousands of people who gathered under the Lighthouse to watch the sunrise on Jan. 1 gave proof to Montauk Point's symbolic importance. The desolate beauty of the very end of the Island is already marred by a parking lot just west of the Lighthouse on Turtle Cove. It's high time to draw the line.