HIGHLANDS’ HISTORY LIVES BEHIND THESE STONE WALLS

The Twin Lights Museum is located on Lighthouse Road in Highlands. It is generally open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but closed for an hourlong lunch at noon and occasional special events. See twinlightslighthouse.com for information. Photo by Rick Geffken

By Rick Geffken |

HIGHLANDS – On their recent visit to the Twin Lights Museum at the Twin Lights historic site, fourth-grade students from Rumson Country Day School toured four new galleries spanning 200 years of Highlands history, examining turn-of-the century bathing suits, the first Pledge of Allegiance and vintage postcards.

Their teachers were thrilled to see these young scholars connect the things they are learning in the classroom, specifically in social studies, to their own community.

“It is really exciting to see their curiosity sparked by the experience of visiting the lighthouse and museum,” said the school’s Casey McChesney.

The Twin Lights Historical Association’s latest public exhibition features nautical and landlubber themes related to the famed lighthouse, as well as tales of Highlands personalities and events. It is a follow-up to the “Seeing Stars: Every Flag Tells a Story” exhibit at the museum, seen by more than 150,000 visitors over the last two years.

This unique perspective on Two River history is presented on brightly painted walls and in stand-alone installations in four appealing galleries. The first features Highlands Heroes and is “like stepping back into Highlands a hundred years ago,” said Mark Stewart, a trustee of the Twin Lights Historical Association.

News clippings and pictures of Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to successfully swim the English Channel in 1926, surround the trophy she won the previous year for swimming from the tip of Manhattan to the tip of Sandy Hook. She trained in the Shrewsbury River at Highlands.

Other eye-catching artifacts include a carousel horse, rare black-and-white photographs and several blue- woolen period bathing suits of the type worn by day-trippers to the mostly forgotten Highland Beach Resort just across the Shrewsbury River in today’s Sea Bright. One of them is Ederle’s.

The “Twin Lights Technology” gallery has the building’s construction blue-prints and pictures of the Fresnel Lens once mounted in the lighthouse. Guglielmo Marconi conducted his telegraph experiments from the Twin Lights in 1899. A video production introduces visitors to the science of radar.

The last and innermost gallery features one-of-a-kind 19th century paintings and photographs of “the quiet, bucolic village of Highlands.” As Stewart relates, less than a month after beginning a search for the original and frequently reproduced Granville Perkins c. 1872 painting of the Twin Lights – the watercolor he calls “our Mona Lisa” – he got a call from a Rumson resident who coincidentally offered the painting to the museum. This exhibit is only the second time the painting has been shown in public.

Twin Lights Historical Association Trustee Mark Stewart with the original Granville Perkins c. 1872 painting of the Twin Lights, now on exhibit at the museum. He calls it “our Mona Lisa.” Photo by Rick Geffken

The building atop Mount Mitchill is the second Twin Lights erected at this location. According to the Friends of the Twin Lights website: “In 1828, sea captains welcomed two new beacons of the Twin Lights on their way to New York Harbor. They emanated from this spot, high above the Navesink Highlands, over-looking Sandy Hook. The official name of the facility was the Navesink Light Station.”

Stewart is expecting upwards of 75,000 visitors this year. He is proud to note that “Twin Lights drew more visitors than any of the other historical sites in the county during the Weekend in Old Monmouth annual event in early May.”

The Twin Lights Museum is open virtually year-round, Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., except for the lunch hour starting at noon. Admission to the museum is free, with donations gratefully accepted. The museum store offers unique Twin Lights-related gifts, maps and books. The address is 2 Light House Road, Highlands, NJ 07732. The website twinlightslighthouse.com is loaded with history and more details.