diff --git a/release-notes/VERSION b/release-notes/VERSION
index 3beb737a74..bda097c6ba 100644
--- a/release-notes/VERSION
+++ b/release-notes/VERSION
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ Project: jackson-databind
 
 2.9.0 (not yet released)
 
+#219: SqlDateSerializer does not obey SerializationConfig.Feature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS
+ (reported by BrentDouglas@github)
 #507: Support for default `@JsonView` for a class
  (suggested by Mark W)
 #888: Allow specifying custom exclusion comparator via `@JsonInclude`,
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/deser/std/DateDeserializers.java b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/deser/std/DateDeserializers.java
index 4a840bc49d..73a980e86e 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/deser/std/DateDeserializers.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/deser/std/DateDeserializers.java
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ protected abstract static class DateBasedDeserializer<T>
          * Let's also keep format String for reference, to use for error messages
          */
         protected final String _formatString;
-        
+
         protected DateBasedDeserializer(Class<?> clz) {
             super(clz);
             _customFormat = null;
@@ -187,7 +187,7 @@ public static class CalendarDeserializer extends DateBasedDeserializer<Calendar>
          * used for instantiation.
          */
         protected final Class<? extends Calendar> _calendarClass;
-        
+
         public CalendarDeserializer() {
             super(Calendar.class);
             _calendarClass = null;
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ public CalendarDeserializer(CalendarDeserializer src, DateFormat df, String form
         protected CalendarDeserializer withDateFormat(DateFormat df, String formatString) {
             return new CalendarDeserializer(this, df, formatString);
         }
-        
+
         @Override
         public Calendar deserialize(JsonParser p, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws IOException
         {
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/ser/std/SqlDateSerializer.java b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/ser/std/SqlDateSerializer.java
index 2857b6f325..90bd3f4aa2 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/ser/std/SqlDateSerializer.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/ser/std/SqlDateSerializer.java
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@
 import java.lang.reflect.Type;
 import java.text.DateFormat;
 
-import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonGenerationException;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.core.JsonGenerator;
+
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.*;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.annotation.JacksonStdImpl;
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.jsonFormatVisitors.JsonFormatVisitorWrapper;
@@ -21,10 +21,8 @@ public class SqlDateSerializer
     extends DateTimeSerializerBase<java.sql.Date>
 {
     public SqlDateSerializer() {
-        /* 12-Apr-2014, tatu: for now, pass explicit 'false' to mean 'not using timestamp',
-         *     for backwards compatibility; this differs from other Date/Calendar types.
-         */
-        this(Boolean.FALSE);
+        // 11-Oct-2016, tatu: As per [databind#219] fixed for 2.9; was passing `false` prior
+        this(null);
     }
 
     protected SqlDateSerializer(Boolean useTimestamp) {
@@ -43,11 +41,19 @@ protected long _timestamp(java.sql.Date value) {
     
     @Override
     public void serialize(java.sql.Date value, JsonGenerator gen, SerializerProvider provider)
-        throws IOException, JsonGenerationException
+        throws IOException
     {
         if (_asTimestamp(provider)) {
             gen.writeNumber(_timestamp(value));
+        } else if (_customFormat != null) {
+            // 11-Oct-2016, tatu: As per [databind#219], same as with `java.util.Date`
+            synchronized (_customFormat) {
+                gen.writeString(_customFormat.format(value));
+            }
         } else {
+            // 11-Oct-2016, tatu: For backwards-compatibility purposes, we shall just use
+            //    the awful standard JDK serialization via `sqlDate.toString()`... this
+            //    is problematic in multiple ways (including using arbitrary timezone...)
             gen.writeString(value.toString());
         }
     }
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/ser/DateSerializationTest.java b/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/ser/DateSerializationTest.java
index 682da99624..d368882561 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/ser/DateSerializationTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/fasterxml/jackson/databind/ser/DateSerializationTest.java
@@ -133,15 +133,29 @@ public void testDateOther() throws IOException
     public void testSqlDate() throws IOException
     {
         // use date 1999-04-01 (note: months are 0-based, use constant)
-        java.sql.Date date = new java.sql.Date(99, Calendar.APRIL, 1);
-        assertEquals(quote("1999-04-01"), MAPPER.writeValueAsString(date));
+        final java.sql.Date date99 = new java.sql.Date(99, Calendar.APRIL, 1);
+        final java.sql.Date date0 = new java.sql.Date(0);
 
-        java.sql.Date date0 = new java.sql.Date(0L);
-        assertEquals(aposToQuotes("{'date':'"+date0.toString()+"'}"),
+        // 11-Oct-2016, tatu: As per [databind#219] we really should use global
+        //   defaults in 2.9, even if this changes behavior.
+
+        assertEquals(String.valueOf(date99.getTime()),
+                MAPPER.writeValueAsString(date99));
+
+        assertEquals(aposToQuotes("{'date':0}"),
                 MAPPER.writeValueAsString(new SqlDateAsDefaultBean(0L)));
 
         // but may explicitly force timestamp too
-        assertEquals(aposToQuotes("{'date':0}"), MAPPER.writeValueAsString(new SqlDateAsNumberBean(0L)));
+        assertEquals(aposToQuotes("{'date':0}"),
+                MAPPER.writeValueAsString(new SqlDateAsNumberBean(0L)));
+
+        // And also should be able to use String output as need be:
+        ObjectWriter w = MAPPER.writer().without(SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS);
+               
+        assertEquals(quote("1999-04-01"), w.writeValueAsString(date99));
+        assertEquals(quote(date0.toString()), w.writeValueAsString(date0));
+        assertEquals(aposToQuotes("{'date':'"+date0.toString()+"'}"),
+                w.writeValueAsString(new SqlDateAsDefaultBean(0L)));
     }
 
     public void testSqlTime() throws IOException