Phone & Email (1) All Addresses (1) Family (4) Social; Court (2) And More; The only reason I ever wanted to make money was to be able to make choices. 1st until it becomes Main Street. Not wanting to see the lens returned to the Coast Guard, the Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce held a raffle that generated $2,000, enough to pay the premium for two years. Log In. For the Graves lighthouse, Waller dove in again, pinching pennies. Two days later a Gloucester fisherman found a bottle containing a final message from the doomed keepers: The beacon cannot last any longer. I have made a calculation and find that what would make me comfortable, Oliver wrote, would amount to nearly five hundred dollars [per year]also the wages of a Man and Boy would be thirty dollars a month. The original 1905 iron ladder, corroded in aqua that matches the sea, runs from the granite under my feet from sea level up a tight parallel against the side of his 113-foot lighthouse. First Assistant: Christopher C. Littlefield (1854), George G. Bowden (1854 1855), Charles H. Tobey (1855 1859), William Baker (1859), Josiah Tobey, Jr. (1859 1861), Calvin Gray (1861 1866), George H. Yeaton (1866 1867), John W. Card (1867 1873), Leander White (1874 1878), David R. Grogan (1878 1880), George O. Leavitt (1880 1881), Paschal Fernald (1881 1885), Orrin M. Lamprey (1885 1886), William C. Williams (1886 1888), James Burke (1888 1890), Charles W. Torry (1890 1893), William M. Brooks (1893 1897), Charles S. Williams (1897 1905), William T. Stevens (1905), Mitchell Blackwood (1905 1911), Charles W. Allen (1911 1913), Fuller E. Larrabee (1913), Roger P. Philbrick (1913 1917), Roscoe M. Chandler (1917 1919), Harry M. Kelley (1919 at least 1921), Eugene L. Coleman (1924 1930), Fred C. Batty (1930 1932), Benjamin Stockbridge (at least 1935), Hoyt P. Smith (1936 1937), Harry H. McClure (1937 1940), George A. McKenney (1940 1942), Jack McCoe (1944 1945), Thomas J. Guice (at least 1945), Robert Adams (at least 1947), Gordon B. Kenny (1951 1952), Charles Eaton (1962 1965), August Pfister (1967 1968). It was kind of redundant.. They try to put them in the hands of groups that will keep them open to the public, but sometimes, like in Minots case, no public entity wants the responsibility. The same guy who purchases a meteorite that fell from the heavens in Ghana and places it in a little red wagon in his living quarters. Minots Ledge Lighthouse lost its resident keepers in 1947, when the light was electrified and automated. In addition to the two dwellings, one of which was fashioned out of an old barn, the inshore station also featured a storehouse, boathouse, and a blacksmiths shop. Lewis, nephew of Winslow Lewis was asked to report on the conditions of the many of the lighthouses along the coasts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Outside a lot. Graves Light, a historic lighthouse in Boston Harbor, is privately owned by David Waller and a partner, Bobby Sager, and under renovation to preserve it. We boiled every bit of what we drank or bathed with. Thomas Point Lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay, built in 1875 , still in its original location, and still used as a navigational beacon, offers seasonal tours by boat from Annapolis, Maryland. Sager was one of the final bidders for Graves Lighthouse in 2013 and acquired Maines Boon Island Lighthouse earlier in 2014 from its private owner. Gulls circle round in clear skies, and time slows. Several keepers were convinced that the ghosts of the two doomed assistant keepers still resided in the lighthouse, sending signals to each other, cleaning the lens, and warning others of the dangers presented by Minots Ledge. Second Assistant: Joseph Antoine (1850 1851), Andrew W. Williams (1860 1861), William S. Taylor (1861 1865), Alden Simmons (1865 1870), Albert H. Burdick (1870 1874), Wallace Willcutt (1874 1876), Thomas J. Sheridan (1876 1877), Amiel Studley (1877 1879), Joseph B. Vinal (1879 1880), Alonzo Smith (1880 1881), Frank F. Martin (1881), Daniel M. Ryan (1881 1882), Albert H. Burdick (1881 1883), Joseph Jason, Jr. (1883), Joseph E. Frates (1883 1892), Winfield L. Creed (1892 1894), George A. Jamieson (1894 1895), Maynard F. Rush (1895 1896), Roscoe G. Lopaus (1896 1905), Charles G. Everett (1905), Levi B. Clark (1905 1909), Octavius H. Reamey (1909 1910), Vivian A. Currier (1910), Andrew Tullock (1910 1913), Henry M. Bailey (1913 1915), Otto W. Newman (1915), Charles R. Albrecht (1915 1916), Winfield S. Thompson (1916 ), John M. Scharff (at least 1917), Whitman (at least 1917), Charles A. Lyman (1919 1921), Francis R. Macy (1922), Per F. Tornberg (1922 1923), George H. Fitzpatrick (1924 1925), Pierre Nadeau (1925), Harold L. Havender (1926 1927), Samuel Perry ( 1928), Llewellyn D. Rogers (1928 1930), Stanley M. Brackett (1931), Stanley M. Brackett (1932 1933),Otis E. Walsh (at least 1936), Elton H. Hegarty (1937 1938), Gustav H. Larson (1938 1939), Patrick J. Breakwaters, River Lights, Channel, Small Islands in Sounds. Sager was one of the final bidders for Graves Lighthouse in 2013 and acquired Maine's Boon Island Lighthouse earlier in 2014 from its private owner. The local brewery makes a Minot Light, Thoreau wrote about it, and its been used in ads for Cape Cod Cranberries and American Tobacco cigarettes. Although William C. Williams remained at Boon Island longer than any other keeper, his mind was not immune from the effects of the storms that often raked the island: The 1888 Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board described the structures at the station. The living quarters were also damaged, and boulders were swept onto the island. Site open; tower closed, except for those with dinner reservations. A new, forty-nine-foot-tall granite tower with an octagonal wrought-iron lantern was built by Colonel Seward Merrill for $3,406.65 in 1831. Third Assistant: Isaac A. Dunham (1850), Kendall Pearson (1851), Samuel Gardiner (1851), W.H. A Coast Guard motorboat from Allerton finally reached the scene and picked up all of the men, who were three miles past the lighthouse at this point and unable to return to the mainland due to the wind. The fires inside the dwelling went out after the chimneys became capped with ice. I ask Waller if he ever imagines himself as one of the lightkeepers. from Minot. At the conclusion of the operation, a memorial plaque honoring Joseph Antoine and Joseph Wilson, the two keepers lost with the lighthouse, was lowered to the seafloor. She is shaking a good three feet each way as I write. On August 22, 1860, the towers second-order Fresnel lens was test lighted, but the formal establishment of the light did not occur until November 15, 1960, when Minots Ledge Lightship was withdrawn. Thomas Farragher is a Globe columnist. 175 steps were required to climb the tower, a task the keepers had to perform several times each night to trim and fill the lamps, often toting heavy containers of lamp oil. Thomas Farragher is a Globe columnist. Then the property goes to a private auction. That cistern had green scum an inch thick on top of it., Despite the storms and hardships, several children and grandchildren loved their time on Boon Island. Lighthouse is best seen by boat, but a distant view is possible from Cape Neddick As the iron supports began to snap one by one, the bell was silenced, the beacon was extinguished, and the men were cast into the raging sea. The U.S. General Services Administration, which is essentially the real estate arm of the government, was tasked with getting rid of it. The tin, above which she was perched, had been two-thirds full and when the sea come, it struck the back of the toilet and it knocked the windows out of the back of the toilet and all that stuff come right out of the square can right onto Arothusa! 3.15 The entries range from the weather 40 degrees, light rain in the morning to more compelling matters: Captured a rowboat full of German sailors in the fog, held them until Navy picked them up three days later. I havent looked at my phone since we left. The company was incorporated in California twelve years ago and is no longer active. At the mooring a few hundred feet out from the station, we hop into the dinghy, his sixththe sea took all the othersand from the stern I look at Waller, 59, in his thick-rimmed black and gray specs under a matching beanie rolled above his ears, rowing in galoshes and yellow waterproof fishing suspenders. Although the area is no longer populated by Indians who believe in the evil spirit of Hobomock, for years tales have abounded of strange moaning, tapping, and even mysterious polishing of the lens by ghostly hands. Sager has agreed to share financial resources and Dave has agreed to share the lighthouse. The first man offered the position refused. The interior was damp. 3 Past Addresses: See available information. Morris, his wife, their two-year-old son, and two coastguardsmen sought refuge in a small, sturdy structure, and a helicopter was dispatched to drop food to them after the waves subsided. Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, North Carolina, is traditionally open for climbing the stairs, though closed periodically in recent years for restoration. Some sit submerged under the waters of the Chesapeake Bay or are about to topple over in the Great Lakes. Donovan (1895), Charles G. Everett (1895 1905), Ernest H. Small (1905 1909), Vivian A. Currier (1909 1910), Eugene N. Larsen (1910 1911), Fred M. Pease (1911 at least 1912), Percy A. Evans (at least 1939 1940). Navigation has largely transitioned to mariner-operation systems. What kind of a guy can buy a lighthouse? The Graves project may be the most elaborate and celebrated lighthouse restoration in history. Yes. Thirteen bidders participated in the auction, which closed on August 17 with a high bid of $78,000. Im not doing this because I was touched by an angel, or because I feel guilty about making too much money, he said. . It's not just the Minot's Ledge lighthouse that's changing hands. Only three months into his tenure as keeper, sitting in the living quarters atop the tower and supposedly out of reach of the waves, Isaac Dunham wrote The wind E. blowing very hard with an ugly sea which makes the light reel like a Drunken ManI hope God will in mercy still the raging seaor we must perishGod only knows what the end will be. By October 1850, Dunham quit, and John Bennett took his place, only to despair soon afterwards at his perilous situation in storms. Log in or sign up for Facebook to connect with friends, family and people you know. This photo is from 1910. After three years spent cutting the rock to form a foundation, the first six courses of the lighthouse were laid, dovetailed, and dowelled together in 1858. I thought that spending my time making more money wasnt going to make my life better, he told me. To ease the burden, two assistant keepers, the stations first, were assigned to Boon Island in 1855. Sager is now fixing up two more lighthouses (Minot's Ledge Light south of Boston and Maine's Boon Island Light) he landed at auction when they were offloaded by the Coast Guard. Writer, Editor, Skier. Great Lakes Lighthouses, Seacoasts, Islands, Sounds. Indeed life inside the lighthouse did prove precarious. I think thats what attracted me to Graves and to other things in my life. Henry David Thoreau described passing Minots Ledge Lighthouse in 1849: The island in the morning was one of the grandest sights I ever witnessed. Icy Minot Ledge Lighthouse. Free shipping for many products! Sylvester (1861 1863), James D. Baxter (1863 1873), Wallace Willcutt (1873 1874), John G. Hayden (1874 1877), Amiel Studley (1877), Joseph B. Vinal (1877 1879), Charles S. Davis (1879 1880), Alonzo Smith (1880), Joseph A. Noble (1880 1881), Frank F. Martin (1881), Frank W. Thomas (1881), Lester G. Willett (1881), Albert H. Burdick (1881 1882), Joseph E. Frates (1882), George L. Lyon (1887 1889), Winfield L. Creed (1889 1892), George F. Holmes (1892 1893), James Kingsley (1893 1894), John E. Morrill (1894), Charles Grey Everett (1894 1895), Daniel D.L. A bell-buoy was placed on Boon Island Ledge, about three miles east of Boon Island, starting in 1858 to mark this navigational hazard. Naval Museum in Kittery, Maine where it may be viewed by the public. The Coast Guard has already divested the vast majority of offshore lighthouses, says DEntremont.