Bricks Fall While Fort Gratiot Lighthouse Awaits Transfer to City
By Sue Clark on Aug 25, 2007 in Opinion 
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The oldest lighthouse on the Great Lakes, Fort Gratiot, awaits transfer to the city of Port Huron, as bricks fall and endanger visitors. The lighthouse was recommended to be transferred to the city in 2005, but two years later, it hasn’t yet happened. Grant money worth $400,000 is sitting there waiting to start rehabilitation, but can’t be issued until the transfer is complete.
On the one hand, the Coast Guard is charged with divesting itself of maintenance of lighthouses, and yet once it starts transferring the properties, it takes over two years? In the meantime, previously performed improper maintenance on the tower has caused problems. According to a story in the Port Huron Times Herald, (be sure to check the informative timeline in the sidebar) the tower apparently was power-washed years ago and then painted before the bricks dried thoroughly. Trapped moisture is causing the bricks to crumble. This seems to be a fate that has happened to many lighthouses; the cleaning and painting were not done to historically accurate (and correct) procedures, and using modern techniques on these bricks, granite, stone and mortar has caused these very same problems for many towers.
Bob Hanford, who leads tours of the lighthouse, said he keeps visitors from walking around the base of the tower. “It really worries me when we get large groups of schoolchildren here,” he said, pointing out spots where bricks have fallen off the tower.
Hanford, a Coast Guard veteran of World War II known as “Lighthouse Bob,” said he has been trying to find someone willing to donate a wooden snow fence that could be used to keep visitors at a distance.
The Port Huron Museum is steward to the lighthouse, along with the Lightship Huron, the only lightship to remain at its station during World War II and the oldest ship in the fleet at its retirement, and is home to the Coast Guard cutter Bramble, one of three that circumnavigated North America. Also near the museum grounds is the former US Lifesaving Station Port Huron.
Perhaps if we lighthouse lovers unite and write or call our congresspersons, we can get the government to act in a more timely manner, before Michigan’s oldest and one of the tallest lighthouses on Lake Huron.
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