"Our engineering company determined that the lighthouse would begin to tilt because of the pilings within three to five years," Kristin Gamble, president of the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society, told The Jiffy this summer. "That was four years ago. And once it begins to tilt, it's gone."
That was in late July. Since then the lighthouse has reached the end of another tour season and looks better than it has in years. It has a new tin roof, rebuilt stairs, and its slate mansard still catches the light between the Athens and Hudson shores. But the work that matters most is underwater, it can't be done in winter, and the earliest hoped-for start is the 2027 season.
Everything Above The Waterline Has Been Fixed
The visible repairs took two years. On April 30, 2025, a tug was pushing a string of barges past the lighthouse, and Gamble told The Jiffy, "I think there were either seven or eight barges which hit the lighthouse. There were too many tethered for the weather conditions that evening." The strike destroyed the dock on the east side and the gangway stairs on the southeast corner, according to the Daily Gazette. The paper reported that scaffolding came down on October 31, 2025, with a permanent dock in place and new stairs set for spring.
The stairs had a rough first season. The Jiffy reported that a brand-new set went in, and three weeks later a train of barges knocked it to the bottom of the river. The replacement is "much more solid than what was there two years ago," the newsletter wrote, and anyone who climbed the old floating stairs will feel the difference.
The roof had been leaking badly. The barge strike delayed that job by weeks, and the Times Union reported the repairs were finished late in 2025. The crew came up from Tennessee because they had experience with old buildings, and one of them got the lighthouse tattooed on his thigh.
So from shore, the lighthouse looks fixed. The trouble is out of sight.
Fifty Feet Down, The Mud Is Leaving
The lighthouse was built in 1874 to mark the Middle Ground Flats, a submerged sandbar that used to wreck ships regularly. It stands on roughly 200 wooden pilings driven 50 feet down to bedrock. The pilings rely on packed mud to protect them from abrasion and from oxygen.
The mud is going. After the deeper shipping channel was cut in the 1930s, larger and wider vessels started passing close by, and their underwater turbulence drags the mud pack away from the pilings and pulls foundation stones out of place. Gamble shows tour groups laminated diagrams comparing the mud line in 2007 with 2021. In those 14 years it dropped four feet.
Van Calhoun, chair of the restoration committee, described the same movement to the Daily Gazette in November 2025. "The movement is increasing at the blocks on the water line. We have to wedge them so they don't move faster further."
Hold that diagram against Gamble's quote. Engineers gave the pilings three to five years, and four have passed. A four-foot loss in the 14 years to 2021 is the measured trend behind that window. The new roof and stairs can't slow it.
Why The Fix Waits For 2027
The plan is to replace the mud pack and the ring of boulders around the foundation. The Times Union describes it as a "curtain wall" built around the base, with material packed between the wall and the pilings. The Jiffy calls it the most urgent project, and one that can't happen in winter.
Here's how the timeline has moved, according to published reports:
| When | What happened | Reported by |
|---|---|---|
| May 2024 | Added to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's "11 Most Endangered Historic Places" list | Times Union |
| December 2024 | U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer announced the lighthouse would join the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Preservation Program | Times Union |
| By January 2026 | Corps finished a feasibility study; next step a $750,000 engineering study, half to be raised by the preservation society, with a $50,000 gap left | Times Union |
| July 2026 | Corps agreed the project can move forward, with funding largely but not entirely federal | The Jiffy |
| 2027 season | Hoped-for start of underwater work | The Jiffy |
Each step needed a study, a match, or a sign-off before the next could begin, and the work itself only fits in the warmer months. Missing one season means waiting a full year. That's why Calhoun told the Daily Gazette that the society couldn't simply wait for a federal build that might take years, and that some temporary maintenance would be needed in the meantime.
The strike damage is a separate thread that hasn't closed. The Times Union reported in January that the sheriff's office and Coast Guard investigations remained open, and that the society was still hoping for the repairs it had been promised early on.
The Season's Last Boat Leaves From Hudson
The 2026 tour calendar was built around seven Saturdays from late July through October. The last trip from the Athens side, at 4 North Water Street, was set for October 10. The society's October newsletter, Letters from the Lighthouse, named Saturday, October 24 as the final Saturday tour of the season, leaving from Henry Hudson Riverfront Park in Hudson every 20 minutes from 10:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
The same newsletter profiles Rodney Russo, a longtime volunteer and the lighthouse's Tower Master. He's a former science teacher who walks visitors around the tower one direction at a time, with puns along the way. From the top he points north to a pile of rocks in the river topped with a simple automated light, which still guides boats but has no lighthouse around it anymore.
"If this Lighthouse falls into the river or we can't keep it restored and healthy, that's what this is going to become. There won't be a Lighthouse anymore."
The society spent September holding pop-up events with its strategic planners, from storytime at the Catskill Library to postcard archives in Hudson. In Coxsackie, people talked about their own kayak and boat trips out to the lighthouse. The newsletter says the message that kept coming back was that the lighthouse is an icon. HALPS started the monthly newsletter to share updates on the preservation project, and it's the most direct way to follow the 2027 plan through the winter.
Riverfront Park Has Its Own Plans
On the Athens shore, Riverfront Park is next in line for change. The NY Forward awards announced by the state on May 8, 2026 include $870,000 to turn the park into a "river access hub." The plan includes expanded docking, a relocated ADA-compliant kayak launch with storage, stamped concrete walkways, and built-in ferry and water taxi facilities. Another $697,000 is set aside to redo the intersection of North Water Street and Second Street, so the park, the business district, and the waterfront connect on foot.
A park designed around boats and water taxis is a park designed around getting people out onto the river, and the lighthouse is the obvious place on the river to go. Whether a future ferry ever adds a lighthouse stop depends on whether there's still a lighthouse to visit. That goes back to the 2027 season.
For now, the riverfront has one date on the calendar before the year ends. The Athens Cultural Center's Victorian Stroll is Saturday, December 12, 2026, from 1 to 5 p.m. It runs along Second Street and through the Lower Village and ends with a 5 p.m. tree lighting and caroling at Riverfront Park. The detailed schedule is still listed as coming soon.
If the lighthouse is part of what makes Athens feel like home, and you'd like to talk about how the riverfront's next few years could shape the village, I'd be glad to hear from you. Melissa Dubin follows these local projects closely and is always happy to share what she's learning. Work With Melissa.
