Retrofitting a Long Island lighthouse for a second act

East Hampton, New York

THE Cedar Island Lighthouse, a quaint, cubic structure of notably large granite blocks in Suffolk County's Cedar Point Park, once appeared like a fortress. From atop its stone tower, built in 1868, the lantern light led whaling ships and fishing boats home.

But the beacon went dark in 1934, when the lighthouse was decommissioned. Three decades later, a fire turned the pseudo-castle into a hollow shell. It has sat empty ever since.