News of the week February 10, 2023
Point Cabrillo (CA) Storms Through History
It has been one month since waves crashed through the back doors of the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse and flooded the interior of the gift shop and museum.
It was extremely hard to see this place that we love so damaged, but the response from the community was amazing and helped keep us going during the weeks that followed. From our partners at State Parks to friends here on the Mendocino Coast and all over the world, the help and support we have received was truly incredible.
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Tour the Charming 19th-Century Winter Harbor (ME) Lighthouse on an Island in Maine
William Sofield is the designer equivalent of those extreme-sports adrenaline junkies who fly off mountain cliffs wearing nothing but a wingsuit, danger be damned. Over the past three decades, the AD100 Hall of Fame talent—whose client list includes titans of taste on the order of Tom Ford and Helen and Brice Marden—has happily embarked on his own perilous adventures, renovating a series of white elephants that mere mortals would not dare to touch.
First there was the rehabilitation of Balcastle, an eccentric early-20th-century brick-and-limestone house with a crenellated tower improbably rising above a street of humble shingled cottages in the town of Southampton, New York. “It was a benign eyesore—Medieval Times meets South Fork swank,” Sofield says of the challenging property. Then came the precarious Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford love nest in Los Angeles’s Laurel Canyon (“It slid down the hill during an El Niño”), followed by an essentially windowless, ground-floor apartment that once operated as a porno theater in Manhattan’s East Village. Since 2004, the designer and his longtime partner, home-furnishings guru Dennis Anderson, have been tackling the restoration of an International Style behemoth designed by Edward Durell Stone and Donald Deskey in Westchester County, New York. “We’re hoping to have it finished for my memorial service,” Sofield jokes of the never-ending project.
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Others saw a rusty old lighthouse (Hooper Island, MD). This man saw opportunity.
There is no electricity or running water. Birds have flown inside and died. There are hazardous materials like lead-based paint, asbestos and benzene. It can’t be used as a home. And it’s in a Navy-controlled “danger area.”
But to Richard Cucé, it is perfect.
Cucé, a divorced father of four who lives on a 25-acre farm in Pennsylvania, works as a painter, plays in a band and is a yoga instructor, decided to use his life savings to rescue a Chesapeake Bay lighthouse.
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Rotting 183-year-old Lake Erie, Port Burwell (Canada) lighthouse at risk of toppling: Officials
Port Burwell’s 1840-vintage wooden lighthouse – the oldest one on Lake Erie’s north shore – is so rickety it’s sealed off and at risk of being blown over.
More than a month after a three-day storm battered the lakeside community, downing trees and power lines and ripping the roof off a restaurant, part of the main road running past the lighthouse is closed.
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North Berwick: Talk held by lighthouse keeper’s son
Alex Crawford, a Rotarian and North Berwick native, gave the talk entitled ‘Son of a Lighthouse Keeper’, detailing what life was like growing up on one of North Berwick’s most iconic locations.
Mr Crawford’s father was an experienced lighthouse keeper, having served at Killantringan Lighthouse near Portpatrick and Corsewall Point near Kirkcolm, before working at the Bass Rock.
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Find out how much Strathy Point (Scotland) Lighthouse would set you back as unique properties go on the market
Anyone in the market for a home with views of the North Atlantic, a little bit of solitude or even a good view of space launches may find their dream home as Strathy Point Lighthouse is up for sale.
Strathy Point is one of the most photographed beauty spots in the Highlands and it is now on the market as three separate properties out of the six on the site which sits right on the beautiful far north coast.
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Offshore wind funding possible for Gay Head (MA) Lighthouse repairs
The historic Gay Head Lighthouse may be getting assistance from offshore wind projects.
Gay Head Lighthouse keeper Chris Manning ran down a list of repairs and projects that will be needed for the lighthouse during the Aquinnah select board meeting on Tuesday. “Some of those are big-ticket items that we’re really kind of working with these wind farm projects for funding,” he said. “The lantern room restoration; the lighthouse restoration as a whole.”
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On the Market: A Hyannis Home With Its Own Lighthouse, the Hyannis Rear Range, MA
Does it get more coastal than this? This contemporary single-family home sits at the tip of Hyannis Harbor. Close to the village’s Main Street with restaurants and marinas, its oceanside location means it’s also privy to the boats and ferries drifting by en route to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. Guiding their way is the lighthouse that comes with the property.
Yes, that’s right: This home comes with its own personal lighthouse.
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Tybee (GA) lighthouse expected to undergo painting project in 2024
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WTOC) – Since the 1700′s, the Tybee Light Station has stood watch on the island, surviving hurricanes and even a fire during the Civil War.
As you can imagine the outside of the lighthouse can take a beating.
In 2024, the Light Station is due to undergo an almost million-dollar painting project but before that can happen, a conditions assessment has to be done.
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Trapani releases new book on Maine lighthouses
“Gleams and Whispers: Maine’s Lighthouses and Their Allure” blends prose and photography to explore how the coastal guardians speak to the heart.
CAMDEN — The mere presence of a lighthouse points to a higher, altruistic purpose – one that is embraced by notions such as romance, mystery, isolation and heroism. Ask a hundred people what lighthouses mean to them, and it is likely you will discover the meanings are as diverse as the people they touch.
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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.
If you have items of interest to the lighthouse community and its supporters, please email them to Jeremy D’Entremont at Jeremy@uslhs.org
