Esopus Creek meets the Hudson River at the town of Saugerties, about seven miles north of Kingston and 101 miles north of New York City. In June 1834, Congress recognized the need for a lighthouse at the mouth of Esopus Creek. The existing combined lighthouse and dwelling was built on a granite pier in 1869. The light was discontinued in 1954, replaced by a small automatic light on the opposite side of the creek. The building declined into ruin in the decades that followed. In 1985, a new organization, the Saugerties Lighthouse Conservancy, was formed.  Today, the restored Saugerties Lighthouse is furnished to look as it did in the early 1900s and offers year-round bed-and-breakfast accommodations. Patrick Landewe came to the lighthouse in 2005 as the modern-day keeper after diverse experience including the supervision of conservation projects in remote locations. In 2011, his wife, Anna Berkheiser, joined him as a co-keeper.