We love visiting the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse and Botanical Gardens located on the Wildwood island in New Jersey. It’s one of the prettiest lighthouses on the eastern seaboard. It sits along the Hereford Inlet and the Atlantic Ocean. You get some of the BEST beach and ocean views right behind this Victorian lighthouse!
The lighthouse was built in 1874 and was designed by Paul J. Pelz, architect of the US Library of Congress. This fourth order lighthouse was constructed for the sake of mariners to mark the entrance to the Hereford Inlet. It’s listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places and listed on the US National Register of Historic Places.
You can visit the lighthouse year-round and walking around the grounds and through the gardens is FREE and open to the public. If you wish to enter the lighthouse you’ll have to pay an admission fee. If you’re visiting the island and looking to get some great family photographs you’ll find a gazebo, gardens, garden baths and 2 wooden rowboats out back which are perfect places to grab those family photos.
First photograph in my post shows the front of the lighthouse. As you can see…it’s definitely designs in the Victorian style. The landscaping on the property is beautiful…especially during the late spring and summer seasons. You’ll find information boards & plaques out front that you can stop and read. These boards will give you the history on the lighthouse.
Throughout the year they host a variety of different events with a lot of them being open to the public. They used to hold a street fair every year in June but stopped that a few years ago. I loved attending that and hope they will consider bringing it back in the future.
Behind the lighthouse you’ll find the North Wildwood Seawall which we walk almost daily when we’re down at the beach. As I previously mentioned…this is the prettiest and most scenic area on the island. I enjoy sitting on one of the benches behind the lighthouse watching the tide roll in. The sunrises are gorgeous too!
I would love to visit this lighthouse and walk around the gorgeous grounds. It has a different look than others I have seen.
I so love lighthouses and this one is really neat. Thanks for sharing these wonderful pictures looks like a nice relaxing place to visit.
If I lived in the area I would love to visit. I have this thing about loving to go through gardens. You can go through at different times and it will look different each time. When we travel that visit is always on my list
I’ve been to Wildwood so many times and yet I have never seen this lighthouse. It looks charming. Its going on my to go list!
It sounds so nice. I would like to visit it and look around. Thank you for a very good review of the place and the grounds.