Saving the Only Lighthouse Built as a Lightkeepers

Saving the Only Lighthouse Built as a Lightkeepers’ Memorial Underway

This story appeared in the January 2002 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine.

Photos courtesy of Ron Foster

Thanks to the efforts of the Avery Point Lighthouse Society (APLS) this past December 4th the lantern room of the endangered historic lighthouse was removed as the first visible effort toward the total restoration of the lighthouse.

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It took approximately one week for Mattern Construction Company of Baltic, CT to construct the elaborate cradle around the old wooden lantern room to eliminate any possible damage while it was lifted off the cement block structure, which is located on the grounds of the University of Connecticut Avery Point Campus in Groton, CT.

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A crane supplied by Marino Crane Company of Hartford, CT did the lifting of the lantern room and engineering consultants Gibble, Norden, Champion and Brown of Old Saybrook, CT, designed the cradle lifting.

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Once removed the lantern room was transported via truck by Drab Concrete Co. to an area on campus provided by the Marine Science Department. The West Mystic Wooden Boat Building Company of West Mystic, CT has offered to build a new (duplicate) lantern room for the cost of materials only. Steve Jones, a professor at the UCONN Avery Point campus, is the owner of that company. The old lantern room will be used as a template to construct the new exact duplicate.

APLS is working closely with staff members at the UCONN Avery Point campus and board members of the American Lighthouse Foundation in Wells, Maine toward the common goal of saving, restoring and relighting this historic lighthouse. Jim Brown, Facilities Manager for UCONN Avery Point coordinated all the construction activities for the lantern rooms lift.

The Avery Point Lighthouse was constructed by the United States Coast Guard as a memorial to past lighthouse keepers of the U.S. Lighthouse Service and the Coast Guard. It operated as an official aid to navigation until the Coast Guard moved from the facility in 1967.

Photos by Ron Foster of Groton Connecticut.

Donations, which are desperately needed toward the ongoing restoration of the lighthouse, can be sent to Avery Point Lighthouse Society, P.O. Box 1552, Groton, CT 06340.

To learn more about the lighthouse visit their web site at

http://www.averypointlight.com/