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Saving A Hidden Treasure
Published on 4/16/2004
Groton - In a house close enough to the mouth of the Thames
River that you can almost hear the sound of bell buoys and taste
the salt of Long Island Sound, in a room filled with lighthouse
memorabilia of every shape and size, James and Irma Streeter sat
down to tell the story of saving the Avery Point Lighthouse.
It all started back in 1997 when University of Connecticut
officials and maintenance personnel at the Avery Point campus
announced in The Day that the lighthouse was found to be in
"dangerously poor condition" and "an actual safety hazard."
At that time, James Streeter was a member of the Groton City
Council and as such found himself deeply concerned with saving the
lighthouse.
The lighthouse itself had sentimental value for Streeter.
"I remember when the Coast Guard training station was there
because my best friend and I used to go down to see his
grandmother who ran the mess and we would get hotdogs or
hamburgers with the guys at the station," Streeter recalled.
In his capacity as city councilor, Streeter contacted Tom DuGuay,
executive assistant of the UConn-Avery Point campus.
"He told me that if I could prove it (the lighthouse) had
significant historical value or had been used as an aid to
navigation, that maybe we could come up with a way to save it,"
Streeter said. He took this information back to the Council and
was assigned to the project.
Soon thereafter, Streeter met Sidney Holbrook, the governor's
chief of staff at the time, at a political function and told him
about the lighthouse. Holbrook then contacted the president of
UConn.
"The chief of staff explained the interest in saving the
lighthouse and the president said, 'No, we're not going to tear it
down, we're going to see what we can do to save it,'" Streeter
said.
Meanwhile, Streeter had contacted Dale Treadway, who would later
become one of the co-founders of the Avery Point Lighthouse
Society. Treadway took some pictures of the lighthouse and
submitted them to The Lighthouse Digest, an international
lighthouse magazine produced by the American Lighthouse Foundation
that runs a list of endangered lighthouses across the country.
"Because he (Treadway) submitted the pictures of the lighthouse in
its deteriorated state, the magazine put the Avery Point
Lighthouse on its endangered lighthouse list," Streeter said.
DeGuay, meanwhile, was preparing a grant application from the Long
Island Sound License Plate Fund. The grant would cover partial
funding to both stabilize and have engineering studies done on the
Avery Point Light. The request was denied.
Not much happened for two years. Then, in 1999, the year DeGuay
resubmitted his grant request, a young lighthouse fan named Steve
Gulyas happened to be surfing the Net when he came across the
Lighthouse Digest site, where he found articles and pictures about
the Avery Point Lighthouse, Streeter said.
Gulyas wanted to apply for funds through the philanthropic program
at Pfizer, Inc, where he worked, in hopes that Pfizer would
donate money to rebuild the light. During a meeting with Gulyas,
Treadway and Streeter to discuss the presentation to Pfizer, new
information was discovered.
"Dale (Treadway) had discovered in a book, written by Kenneth
Kotchel, that the Avery Point Lighthouse was built as a memorial
to all other lighthouses and lighthouse keepers. That was a
significant piece of information," said Streeter.
Although there was significant interest to save the lighthouse,
Pfizer ultimately rejected the application. But by then, the three
men were committed to saving, restoring and relighting the
lighthouse.
"So, in May of 2000 we started the Avery Point Lighthouse Society
and we've been going strong ever since," Streeter said. The APLS
has subsequently become a chapter of the American Lighthouse
Foundation of Wells, Maine, and as such maintains tax-exempt
non-profit status.
The next step was to have UConn sign a Memorandum of Agreement
with the APLS stating that they would work together to raise funds
for restoration and to maintain the lighthouse after it was
restored.
Streeter contacted Jim Norden of the engineering firm Gibble,
Norden, Champion & Brown in Old Saybrook, who agreed to take a
pro-bono look at the lighthouse to see if it was structurally
sound.
"Although it was in good shape structurally, it still needed a lot
of work. So we started raising money," Streeter said. "The
original estimate to restore the lighthouse was close to $150,000.
Now the estimate is up over $300,000."
In June 2001, Sen. Cathy Cook (R-Mystic), Rep. Lenny Winkler
(R-Groton), Rep. Andrea Stillman (D-Waterford), and former Rep.
Nancy DeMarinis (D-New London) went to the Connecticut General
Assembly to get a bonding bill passed for $150,000. During the
effort to get that bill passed, APLS went to the state legislature
to testify before the committee for the money.
"At about that time, Rob Simmons got involved with the project.
Through conversations with Rob we found out that he had a very
personal connection with the lighthouse," said Streeter.
It turns out that when the lighthouse was built in 1942-1943,
Simmons' father was employed by the construction manager for all
the buildings that were built at the Coast Guard training station
in Groton.
"Simmons said that his father may have been involved in the
building of that lighthouse. So, I asked him if he could pursue
federal funding for the project," Streeter said.
Streeter and the former mayor of the town of Groton, Delores
Hauber, went to Washington to testify before the House
Appropriations Committee. Though the bill failed, Simmons
continued to pursue funds and last November announced that an
appropriation of $100,000 for the project had been received from
the National Parks Service's Save America's Treasures Act.
Just before that, in June 2002, the Connecticut State Historic
Preservation Board unanimously approved the APLS nomination to
have the lighthouse placed on the National Register of Historic
Places.
"In the meantime, for all these years, approximately 11 core
people in APLS set up tables and sold items like shirts, models,
candles, buttons, pins, books and lithographs to raise money,"
Streeter said. "We also decided to sell dedication bricks that
will be placed in the walkway that goes around the lighthouse and
along the water."
So far APLS has raised over $90,000 through the merchandise sales,
brick sales, donations and other miscellaneous contributions.
Last September, the replacement of the structure's blocks, the
first and most major phase of the renovation, began. That work was
completed in November. The wooden lantern room that had been
removed and put in storage on campus in December 2001 was moved to
the West Mystic Wooden Boat Building Company, where Stephen Jones
and Mark Robinson built a duplicate using the original lantern
room as a template.
"We are hoping to have the new lantern room placed on the
lighthouse by July of this summer," Streeter said.
Aside from that, work on the structure has been on hold for the
winter, but Streeter is hopeful that things will begin again later
on this spring.
The final phase of the project includes replacing the balustrade
and balusters, replacing the roofing and flashing, removing
existing lead paint from the interior, repairing the interior
plaster, installing a new navigational lighting system and
installing the dedication brick walkway.
APLS is also planning to put a museum at the lighthouse to
preserve the historical integrity and educate generations to come.
"The Avery Point Lighthouse was the last lighthouse built in the
state of Connecticut; it is the only lighthouse in the United
States to be built as a memorial to all other lighthouses and
lighthouse keepers; it is on the National Registry of Historic
Places; and as Governor John Rowland calls it, one of
Connecticut's hidden treasures," Streeter said. "We are going to
do as much as we can to make sure it stays that way."
Membership in the Avery Point Lighthouse Society is up to more
than 170 individuals. For more information on purchasing a
dedication brick or making a donation, visit
https://www.averypointlight.com or
call 445-5417.
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