The U.S. Lighthouse Society encourages its members to support the lighthouses in their community. If you aren’t committed to a specific lighthouse, please consider supporting the Society’s Preservation Grants Program.
In 2016 a total of $35,000 in grants was awarded through this program, drawing on the interest from a still-growing investment fund that the U.S. Lighthouse Society has committed to increase through the years so that more and larger preservation grants can be made.
A $9,000 grant was awarded to the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse Trust in Maine to replace the lantern vent ball on the breakwater lighthouse and repair damage in the lantern caused by water intrusion. The entire project will cost $20,700.
On the Great Lakes, the Michigan Lighthouse Conservancy will use a $9,000 grant to complete a $32,375 project to fabricate and install damaged or missing parts of the handrail system in the tower and on the lantern gallery at the Muskegon South Pierhead Lighthouse.
A $7,000 grant went to the Pensacola Lighthouse Foundation to restore a long-lost iron pedestal to the top of the lighthouse and use it to support a lens that now is suspended from the lantern roof. The pedestal was found a few years ago in the woods near the tower, and has been restored. The grant will go toward the $17,589 project to place it back in its proper location to support the lens and curtail the structural damage caused by the current system.
In addition, the Morris Island project was a finalist in this year’s grants program, and was selected by Society’s corporate partner, the SeaPak Division of Rich Products Corp., St. Simons Island, Georgia, for its first program donation. The Charleston group will use the $10,000 grant to gain a definitive assessment of the condition of the cofferdam-protected lighthouse and determine what steps can be taken, in what order and at what cost, to preserve the structure. International Chimney Corp., movers of the Cape Hatteras Light and other lighthouses, will do the work.
At this point the Society’s program is open only to not-for-profit groups, with a maximum grant amount of $10,000. As the dedicated preservation fund grows, more grant money will be made available for future projects. Information on applying for future grants may be found on the Society’s website.
If you wish to donate to the Society’s grant program, you can do so online or by calling the Society at 415-362-7255 (Pacific coast time). Questions may also be directed to info@uslhs.org.
Based on previous submission to the Council of American Maritime Museums News Blog. Resubmitted by Candace Clifford, December 23, 2016
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U.S. Lighthouse Society News is produced by the U.S. Lighthouse Society to support lighthouse preservation, history, education and research. Please consider joining the U.S. Lighthouse Society if you are not already a member. If you have items of interest to the lighthouse community and its supporters, please email them to candace@uslhs.org.
Candace was the US Lighthouse Society historian from 2016 until she passed away in August 2018. For 30 years, her work involved lighthouse history. She worked with the National Park Service and the Council of American Maritime Museums. She was a noted author and was considered the most knowledgable person on lighthouse information at the National Archives. Books by Candace Clifford include: Women who Kept the Lights: a History of Thirty-eight Female Lighthouse Keepers , Mind the Light Katie, and Maine Lighthouses, Documentation of their Past.