Flag exhibit is a national caliber collection
The street rises steeply and switches back once as mountain roads do. It is overhung with trees that, even bare in winter, obscure the view of the monolithic castle at the summit, a twin-towered brownstone fortress that sits dark, looming and isolated, on the windswept hill.
But the view from the top of that hill is why Congress approved funding for the original Navesink lighthouse, which was built in 1828. The hilltop is 200 feet above sea level, the highest natural point along New Jersey's 127-mile Atlantic Coast, the Raritan Bay and the mouth of the New York Harbor.
The existing lighthouse was built in 1862, the second year of the Civil War.
Before the light was decommissioned in 1949, the elaborate prisms of the Fresnel lenses cast beams 22 miles out to sea and their glow could be seen 70 miles away.
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A new exhibit at Twin Lights is called "Seeing Stars," but it has nothing to do with celestial navigation. It's about the American flag, in all its iconic splendor, and organizers hope it will rightfully elevate Twin Lights to be a must-see Jersey Shore attraction.
"We needed to do this," said Mary Jo Kenny, president of the Twin Lights Historical Society, a non-profit friends group that supports the state-owned landmark.
"Supports" might be an understatement. They raised all the money: $8,000 for the exhibit and $112,00 for the permanent renovation of the museum.
"We have this unique, historical gem here and it should be seen by everybody," Kenny said.
And that is not an overstatement.
Twin Lights, the structure, is awe-inspiring, but the view alone should draw year-round crowds. From the top of the hill, the Navesink River, the Sandy Hook Bay and the infinite expanse of the Atlantic are at your feet. On the horizon, tankers and cargo ships churn silently in the shipping lanes into New York Harbor. To the left is the long arm of Sandy Hook; at the foot of the hill is the compact town of Highlands, with sailboat masts swaying in the marinas.
The high-velocity winds and waves of Hurricane Sandy devastated the area. Boats washed up on the borough's streets, and homes and businesses for several waterfront blocks were significantly flooded or destroyed. High on the hill, Twin Lights was all but unscathed, save for a few fallen branches.
"We wanted to do something to help the recovery," said Sam Laufer, a historical society trustee. "We couldn't think of a better way than a flag exhibit."
Laufer and Kenny both hope this exhibit of hundreds of historic flags and flag-related memorabilia will double or even triple the attendance at Twin Lights and give the local economy a boost.
The flag as an image of American fortitude is part of the national lore, from Francis Scott Key's inspiration at Fort McHenry to the raising at Iwo Jima and the World Trade Center after 9/11.
But there was another, somewhat lost historic moment at Twin Lights, which made a flag exhibit there a perfect fit.
On April 25, 1893, an enormous flag was draped across the front of the edifice - with the field of blue stars to the right, incidentally - and a 135-foot flag pole carrying a second giant flag was erected for the occasion, which was the first public reading of the Pledge of Allegiance.
This national call-for-patriotism event was attended by thousands and saluted by a flotilla of Navy ships. It made the front page of the New York Times as fervor for the new "Oath of Loyalty" spread.
The flag exhibit at Twin Lights was three years in the making. It wasn't just about collecting rare and historic red, white and blues. The entire museum space at Twin Lights was redesigned and rebuilt. The large room that held artifacts from the lighthouse, shipwrecks and U.S. Lifesaving Service was turned into three rooms, with track lighting and exhibit-quality removable walls, all paid for by the friends' group through donations.
"We did it with mostly $1 or $2 put into the kitty," Laufer said.
When the group sought flags to exhibit, they went to Peter Keim of Austin, Texas, widely known as greatest collector of rare American flags, and New Jersey's Richard Pierce, who lives in Whitehouse. Pierce says his specialty is collecting flags that reflect the times.
"I've been a history and political science buff my whole life," he said, as he walked through the exhibit last weekend. "The flags I collect tell the (nation's) story."
The same is true of the exhibit. The three rooms are a three-century tour of the Stars & Stripes and flag memorabilia. It begins with the American Colonies' first official flag, the Grand Union, which had a Union Jack where the stars field is today and 13 alternating red and white stripes.
Through its many incarnations - the flag Francis Scott Key memorialized had 15 stars and 15 stripes - and star patterns and additions, the American flag, as Key wrote, is "still there" and always has been.
From the first "Stars & Stripes," designed by New Jersey's Francis Hopkinson and adopted by Congress in 1777, to the 50-star flag that another New Jerseyan, Buzz Aldrin, planted on the moon in 1969, the American "flag has been a rallying point in our history," Laufer said.
"To understand the history of the flag is to understand the history of the country," he said.
Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.