By Sue Clark on Jun 19, 2009 in News | Comments Welcome 
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Light To Be Turned Off In Preparation
If you want to see the beam from the Fourth Order Fresnel lens atop Ocracoke Lighthouse, North Carolina, you’d best plan to do so before July 11. That’s when the Coast Guard will be turning off the light in anticipation of the much needed repairs to the interior. The light itself will be off for about sixty days, with actual restoration work beginning around the first of August. During this time the lighthouse will be closed to the public, and only viewable from the end of the boardwalk.
By Sue Clark on Jun 19, 2009 in Opinion | 1 Comment Print This Post
A Most Confusing Story…
In December 2007, I wrote about New Point Comfort Lighthouse, Virginia, and the plans to rebuild the rocks around what is left of the former peninsula. The lighthouse stands on a small islet of its former site, which was washed away during hurricanes such as Isabel in 2003. Plans were to shore up the remaining land with more rocks, as the lighthouse, stands only 8 or 9 feet above mean tide.
By Sue Clark on Jun 18, 2009 in News | 2 Comments Print This Post
Plans To Move Light Stalled
As the Middle Bay lighthouse in Mobile Alabama grows more derelict each day, plans to move it inland are still on hold. A meeting of the Alabama Historical Commission is scheduled for next week to decide on it fate. The local preservation group concerned about it, the Alabama Lighthouse Association, called for it to be moved last year. But time marches slowly in government, and the committee will just now be deciding if it should stay or if it should go to a new home at Battleship Memorial Park. The cost of moving the lighthouse 15 miles by crane and barge is estimated to be $1.7 million dollars, including restoration.
By Sue Clark on Jun 16, 2009 in News | 2 Comments Print This Post
And Not From Vandalism
Happisburgh Lighthouse, the only privately run lighthouse in Great Britain, had a bit of bad luck the other day. It had been overdue for a new coat of paint, and after getting the paint for the masonry donated and some minor repairs to the exterior completed, the painting work began as scheduled. Unfortunately, as the workers were just finishing up painting the red portions of the lighthouse, a torrential rainfall appeared, and the still wet paint ran down into the white, turning it into an unlikely shade of pink.To complete the painting, the workers will now have to use twice as much white paint as planned.
By Sue Clark on Jun 13, 2009 in News | 5 Comments Print This Post
Broken Lens Repaired
Beginning life on a steamer plying the Great Lakes, this unusual Sixth Order Fresnel Lens was pressed into service at the Two Rivers North Pier Lighthouse in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Constructed in 1886, it was small thirty-six foot tall skeletal wooden light on the end of the North pier. After years of lonely service, the lighthouse begin the inevitable decline toward deterioration and was rebuilt in 1926. It was lonely service because this tower never had a keeper assigned to it. The keepers from the Rawley Point Light Station, five miles away, were charged with keeping this one also.
By Sue Clark on Jun 12, 2009 in News | Comments Welcome Print This Post
Action Circumvents an Old State Law
In a move designed to circumvent a state law that forbids any money going to the Montauk Historical Society, the town of East Hampton (New York) will accept responsibility for the Montauk Lighthouse in order to prevent further erosion, threatening to topple the lighthouse and buildings off the cliffs on which it stands. The work has been in the planning stages for a long time, agreements with the Army Corps of Engineers are in place for the work, funding has been procured. But the state can’t kick in its portion as a law passed in the 1940s precludes giving money to the Society.
By Sue Clark on Jun 11, 2009 in Featured | 7 Comments Print This Post
No Money To Paint Iconic Lighthouse (Updated)
One of Nova Scotia’s most visited lighthouses will be left without a paint job, even though it’s in desperate need of one. The land based lighthouse, easily accessible to hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, was denied the $25,000 from the Department of Fisheries funds to scrape and repaint its tower. The DFO is in agreement that the lighthouse needs some cosmetic work, but the stimulus money isn’t going to be used on it, preferring to reserve funding those lighthouse that are structurally unsound, which Peggys Cove is not.
If you want to see the beam from the Fourth Order Fresnel lens atop Ocracoke Lighthouse, North Carolina, you’d best plan to do so before July 11. That’s when the Coast Guard will be turning off the light in anticipation of the much needed repairs to the interior. The light itself will be off for about sixty days, with actual restoration work beginning around the first of August. During this time the lighthouse will be closed to the public, and only viewable from the end of the boardwalk.
