Mount Loretto Light, Staten Island, NY – 1944 The Mount Loretto Lighthouse was built in 1864 to serve a large commercial oystering industry and is located on the southern shore of Staten Island, NY near Princes Bay. Deactivated in 1922, the light later became a monument and part of the Mount Loretto Mission of the Immaculate Virgin (a statue of the Virgin Mary is on the tower in place of the lantern.) During the late 1980s and early 1990s Cardinal John O’Connor, the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York City, spent his summer retreats at this stone structure. The property is now owned by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and in late 2007, the structure was renamed the John Cardinal O'Connor Lighthouse and a new beacon has been activated as an official aid to navigation.