As July 1920 ended, those interested in preventing the Barnegat Lighthouse from being allowed to fall into the sea had, with the help of U.S. Sen. Joseph Frelinghuysen, organized a meeting with the head of the federal Lighthouse Bureau to take place at the Sunset Hotel in Barnegat City near the base of the tower.

So sure was the federal government that the lighthouse would fall that it had sold off the massive keeper’s house for scrap and evicted the tenants.

Supporters of the lighthouse had donated money and voted to raise local taxes to build a jetty. Their expert, Lewis M.