By Sue Clark on Jul 4, 2007 in Restoration | Comments Off
The Manton Foundation has awarded a grant in the amount of $125,000 USD to Thacher Island Association for repairs to the South Tower of the Thacher Island Lights (Cape Ann Lightstation), in Rockport, Massachusetts. Renovations are expected to cost $250,000 USD. The North Tower was renovated last year by the International Chimney Corporation, best known for moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina.
The original towers were built in 1771, but were replaced in 1861. The twin towers were the site of the first tests by Winslow Lewis’ modified Argand lamp in 1814. They were later adopted at all US lighthouses, until the far superior Fresnel lens replaced them in the 1850s.
By Sue Clark on Jul 1, 2007 in Restoration | Comments Off
The Detroit (Michigan) Free Press has a nice story today (July 1) about the efforts to restore the South Channel Range Lights on Lake St. Clair by the Save Our South Channel Lights organization.
Originally lit in 1859, the two lights off Harsen’s Island guided ships through the St. Clair Flats channel until a deeper channel was dredged nearby. The first tower (the rear range light) was deactivated in 1907. According to the story, the island was used as a bootleg operation during Prohibition, and as a site where the local well-to-do would go to hold illicit (although “classy”) parties without fear of being caught drinking. The house was eventually torn down in the 1930s, due to vandalism and the elements.
By Sue Clark on Jun 28, 2007 in Restoration | Comments Off
Cape Brett Lighthouse, in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand has just undergone an eight week long renovation, due in part to having to remove 98 years of paint jobs. That came out to sixty complete layers of paint that had to go. According to the New Zealand Herald online story, there was also rot found at the bottom of the doors, and due to the lightstation’s location, the new rosewood doors, weighing in at around 600 pounds, had to be helicoptered in to the island.
The lighthouse is owned and operated by the Maritime Safety Authority.
By Sue Clark on Jun 21, 2007 in Restoration | Comments Off
Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse in Maryland is undergoing a facelift, according to this article in the Washington Post. The lighthouse, of screwpile design, was built in 1875 to warn sailors away from dangerously shallow water near Thomas Point. This was what was considered a “stag” lighthouse, where it was single men only, with no families allowed.
The light was automated in 1986, and passed into the hands of the city of Ananapolis through the NPS lighthouse program. It was leased to the U.S. Lighthouse Society in 2004.
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By Sue Clark on Jun 21, 2007 in Restoration | Comments Off
Iceland’s last remaining lighthouse keeper, Óskar Jakob Sigurdsson, has been presented with the Environmental Hero Award by the US Ambassador in Iceland Carol van Voorst in a special ceremony at the US Embassy in ReykjavÃk. Since 1992 Sigurdsson has collected air samples for the GMD Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases group at the Stórhöfdi lighthouse on the Westmann Islands.
Sigurdsson has been lighthouse keeper at one of the oldest (100 years) lighthouses in Iceland since 1965. The position has been passed down from father to son for the past 96 years.
Read about it here.
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