Light Hearted

Point Sur juts out from a rugged portion of the California coast 25 miles south of Monterey Bay. The Lighthouse Board had considered a lighthouse at Point Sur as early as 1856, but the terrain was daunting.

Congress finally appropriated $50,000 in 1886 and another $50,000 in the following year. Stone for the buildings was quarried near the site, and a steep railway—708 feet long—was built to transport supplies to the top of a volcanic rock that rises to a height of 361 feet. At the top, after a roadbed was blasted out of the rock, another 480-foot railway was built to the lighthouse site. The station went into service on August 1, 1889.

The light was automated and the personnel were removed in 1972. In 1984, the Coast Guard turned over most of the station to the California Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Point Sur State Historic Park was soon born.

A nonprofit organization, Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers, was formed in 1993 to support the preservation of the light station. State Parks volunteers lead tours at Point Sur Light Station and operate the visitor center.

John and Carol O’Neil have been working as Point Sur State Historic Park volunteers for about 27 years, and John serves as chair of the Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers while Carol is the historian.

Carol wrote the book Point Sur, published by Arcadia Press in 2003.

Josh Liller has been the Historian and Collections Manager for the Loxahatchee River Historical Society and the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse & Museum in Florida since 2014.

Jupiter Inlet Light Station has a museum on the site that features 5000 years of local history.

Josh also serves as historian for the Florida Lighthouse Association, and he gives presentations related to local history throughout the year.

He’s the co-author of the revised edition of the book Five Thousand Years on the Loxahatchee, and he was the editor of the second edition of the book The Florida Lighthouse Trail.

Josh is also a regular contributor to the U.S. Lighthouse Society’s journal, The Keeper’s Log, and his column Bright Ideas appears on this news blog.

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Block Island, south of the Rhode Island coast and east of the entrance to Long Island Sound, lies in the middle of major shipping lanes.  A lighthouse was established at the island’s northernmost point in 1829, but it did nothing to aid vessels heading past the south side of the island. Congress appropriated $75,000 for a first-order light and fog signal in 1872, and a brick dwelling and attached 67-foot-tall brick tower were built. The light went into operation on February 1, 1875.

The architecture of the lighthouse has been classified as the High Victorian Gothic style, with Italianate influences. The building is an architectural showcase that’s totally unlike any other lighthouse ever built in the New England region. It was also a technological showcase and was regarded as one of the best-equipped stations on the coast, with a huge first-order Fresnel lens from France.

Block Island Southeast Light Station was one of the last in the country to be automated and de-staffed. In December 1989, the navigational light was relocated to a steel skeleton tower. At that time, the lighthouse building was severely endangered by erosion of the bluff. Funding was secured for a move of the lighthouse to safer ground, and the move took place in 1993. The lighthouse was returned to service as an aid to navigation following the move.

Restoration has been ongoing, and most recently the interior of the building has been renovated and new exhibits have been installed. Lisa Nolan is the executive director of the Southeast Lighthouse Foundation, and Dr. Gerald Abbott is the president.

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Congress appropriated $4,000 for a lighthouse near the mouth of the Bass River on Cape Cod in 1850. Oxen hauled building materials across the local marshes, and the Bass River Light went into service on April 30, 1855. The government deemed the lighthouse unnecessary after the advent of the Cape Cod Canal and a new automatic light was established on the Bass River west jetty at the entrance to the river. The light was extinguished in 1914 and the property was soon sold at auction.

In 1938, the property was bought by State Senator Everett Stone and his wife, Gladys. The Stones began to have overnight guests, and their hospitality became so popular that they soon opened it to the public as the Lighthouse Inn. Bob and Mary Stone managed the Inn for many years.

In 1989 the Stone family had their lighthouse relighted as a seasonal aid to navigation, with a 300-millimeter optic providing a white light that flashes every six seconds.

Members of the Stone family remain involved with the inn’s operation today. Bob and Mary’s son Greg is president, and his wife, Patricia, is the general manager.

Ralph Krugler is the historian for the Hillsboro Lighthouse Preservation Society in Florida. He’s spent several years researching the history of the light station and he’s put together an extensive book on the subject.

Volume one is now available, and he also has a new children’s book called Let’s Visit the Lighthouse.

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The Outer Banks, a 200-mile-long chain of barrier islands, stretch from southeastern Virginia to most of the North Carolina coast. The islands were a haven for piracy in the 1600s, but later an important commercial fishing industry developed in the region. Currituck Beach Lighthouse—the northernmost of the light stations on the Outer Banks—began service on December 1, 1875, to fill a 40-mile gap on the coast between the lights at Cape Henry, Virginia, and Bodie Island, North Carolina. It was the last major brick lighthouse built on the Outer Banks. Until 1933 when it was electrified, the station had a principal keeper and two assistants serving at a time.

After automation in 1937, the site fell into disrepair until the nonprofit Outer Banks Conservationists renovated the station’s buildings and opened the site to the public in 1990. In 2003, the U.S. Department of the Interior awarded the organization the ownership of the lighthouse.

Meghan Agresto has been the resident site manager of the Currituck Beach Light Station for more than 16 years. Because the nearest schools are far away on the mainland, she started a school for local children and she continues to serve as board president of the Corolla Education Foundation.

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Orient Point Lighthouse is a cast-iron, so-called “sparkplug” type lighthouse in a location known as Plum Gut, between Plum Island and Orient Point at the northeastern tip of Long Island, New York. After its 1958 automation, the Coast Guard considered tearing it down and replacing it with a simple pipe tower, but a public outcry saved the structure and some restoration work was carried out. 

In 2013 the property was auctioned under the guidelines of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. The winner of the auction was Randy Polumbo, an artist and the founder of the New York City eco-construction company, Plant. Randy’s work has been exhibited nationally and abroad. Over the past few years he has transformed the interior of the lighthouse, adding a kitchen and studio space. He’s installed a spinning, glowing sphere on the watch room gallery, and a colorful grotto inside, which he calls a “walk-in kaleidoscope.” Randy plans to make the lighthouse available for artists, writers, and composers who want to be “lost at sea for a week or more.”

Click here to read more about Randy Palumbo and Orient Point Lighthouse

Tarrytown Lighthouse went into service on October 1, 1883, about 20 miles north of New York City on the east shore of the Hudson River. It’s a cast-iron caisson structure, with four stories inside and a light 56 feet above mean high water. The Tappan Zee Bridge, spanning the Hudson River at its widest point, was completed in 1955. The bridge, with powerful lights and a foghorn on its center span, rendered the lighthouse virtually obsolete. After years of abandonment, the lighthouse was acquired by Westchester County. It has again fallen into disrepair in recent years, but Westchester County recently announced a major restoration project. Westchester is led by County Executive George Latimer, who took office in January 2018 as the ninth County Executive.

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Elinor DeWire is an award-winning author, editor, public speaker, educator, and blogger based in Connecticut. She began her writing career with freelance stories for a Florida newspaper, and in 1987 she published her first book, Guide to Florida Lighthouses. Since then, she’s authored some twenty books about lighthouses. From 1991 to 2000 Elinor wrote two regular columns for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Mariners Weather Log, one about the U.S. Lifesaving Service and one on lighthouses.

She continues to contribute articles on lighthouses to various publications. She’s also written early Victorian-era novels, plus four books and a number of articles about amateur astronomy and sky watching.

Elinor was awarded a short fiction prize in 1992 from the National League of American Pen Women. She is also the recipient of the Coast Guard Meritorious Public Service Award. She serves today on the board of directors of the U.S. Lighthouse Society and chairs the Society’s Education Committee.

Elinor’s website

Elinor’s blog

Also in this episode: an interview with Bill Gicker, director of Stamp Services for the U.S. Postal Service. On August 6, the USPS is releasing a new set of five Mid-Atlantic lighthouse stamps. The stamps feature paintings by Howard Koslow, and they depict the following lighthouses: Montauk, New York; Navesink Twin Lights, New Jersey; Erie Harbor Pierhead in Pennsylvania; Harbor of Refuge in Delaware; and Thomas Point Shoal in Maryland.

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Point Cabrillo is in Northern California, about midway between San Francisco and the border with Oregon. The point is named for Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, an explorer who sailed the California coast on behalf of Spain in 1542 and ‘43. It took a series of shipwrecks in the vicinity and pleas from mill owners and mariners before construction of a lighthouse began in the summer of 1908. An octagonal lighthouse tower was combined with a fog signal building in an attractive building that has been likened to a small church, built of local redwood and Douglas fir.

The last Coast Guard keepers left in 1972 when the navigational light in the lighthouse was replaced by an aerobeacon that was mounted on the roof of the fog signal building. In 1992, the property was bought by the California State Coastal Conservancy. Restoration followed, and the Fresnel lens in the lighthouse was reactivated. After restoration, the duty of managing the station was handed over to the nonprofit Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers Association.

Two of the former keepers’ houses and two smaller buildings are open for overnight stays. A museum and gift shop are open daily, and there’s an aquarium and marine science exhibit in another light station building. Jen Lewis began volunteering at Point Cabrillo Light Station when she moved to Mendocino County in 2016, and she has been the Outreach Manager for the nonprofit Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers Association since 2018.

This episode is co-hosted by Jeff Gales, executive director of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.

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Chris Overcash is the Senior Engineer and Deputy Director of Coastal Resilience for EA Engineering, Science, and Technology in Maryland. Chris has more than 20 years of experience in the fields of coastal, civil, and environmental engineering. His background includes projects in marine and coastal design, dredging, and resource management, and climate resiliency.

Chris is also an adjunct faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, and serves as an associate member of the Environment, Energy, Sustainability, and Health Institute. And he’s also a longtime maritime enthusiast, which led him to get involved 17 years ago with the effort to preserve Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, the only cottage-style screw-pile lighthouse still in its original location in Chesapeake Bay.

For many years, Chris has organized and led volunteer days for his company’s staff to help support preservation efforts.

He completed an environmental assessment of the lighthouse and designed a landing dock for visitor access and tours.

More recently, he completed a resilience study on how climate change will affect Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse.

The special guest co-host for this episode is Shalana Millard, a writer and lighthouse aficionado living in Washington D.C.

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The lighthouse at Piney Point in Maryland –14 miles from Chesapeake Bay up the Potomac River — was established in 1836, making it the oldest lighthouse on the river. The conical brick tower is 26 feet tall.

In 1980 the property was transferred to St. Mary’s County. The County licensed the St. Clement’s Island-Potomac River Museum to preserve the light station, and a museum was established. The museum’s exhibits focus on the construction and operation of the lighthouse, lighthouse keepers, the role of the Coast Guard, and other subjects related to the history of the site. April Havens is the site manager at the Piney Point Lighthouse Museum and Historic Park.

Split Rock Lighthouse is located on a 127-foot-high cliff on the northwest shore of Lake Superior. The lighthouse went into service on August 1, 1910. The Coast Guard declared the lighthouse obsolete and it was discontinued as an official navigational aid in 1969. Ownership was transferred to the State of Minnesota, and today the Minnesota Historical Society administers the site. The light station is the centerpiece of 2200-acre Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.

Lee Radzak became the lighthouse site manager in November 1982. After retiring in 2019, Lee began work on a new book — The View from Split Rock: A Lighthouse Keeper’s Life. The book, which is co-written by journalist and author Curt Brown, takes readers into the life of a modern-day lighthouse keeper at Split Rock. The book is organized by season and is illustrated with photos taken by Lee and other talented photographers.

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