FAIRPORT HARBOR LIGHTHOUSE-FAIRPORT, OHIO

In the fall of 1825, a fifty-five-foot-tall lighthouse and dwelling were completed and the fixed white light, fueled by whale oil, was exhibited for the first time. As one of only eight lighthouses on the Great Lakes, Fairport Lighthouse attracted a growing number of vessels to its port, and soon Fairport was known as a “sailor’s town,” rivaling the port of Cleveland. Unfortunately, only a few years after its construction, Fairport Harbor Lighthouse began to show signs of wear and tear, and after ten years the foundation had settled so much it required a complete replacement. Within thirty years, the lighthouse had to be encircled with wire hoops to keep it from toppling over. On March 3, 1869, Congress appropriated $30,000 for a new tower to replace the crumbling old one, and for a keeper's dwelling. A light was exhibited from a temporary tower on December 10, 1869, allowing the old tower to be taken down. Not wanting to repeat the original builders’ mistake, the new contractors hired engineers to determine the best possible foundation. This resulted in piles being driven into the ground and their heads capped with a foot-thick concrete slab. On top of that was placed a grillage of two courses of twelve-inch timbers followed by a limestone foundation that extended from ten feet below the ground to four feet above ground level. An act passed July 12, 1870 forced the suspension of the work and transferred the balance of the appropriation, roughly $9,000, to the treasury. At this time, twenty-nine courses of Brea sandstone had been set in the tower. On March 3, 1871, Congress provided $10,000 for finishing the tower and constructing the keeper's dwelling. The tower's walls had an outside diameter of nineteen feet nine inches at the base and thirteen feet four inches at the lantern room, while the brick-lined interior of the tower had a constant diameter of eight feet for the spiral stairway. A third-order Fresnel lens, manufactured by Henry-Lepaute and used in the original lighthouse, was transferred to the new tower. The redbrick, one-and-a-half-story dwelling was originally connected to the tower by an eighteen-foot-long covered passage. A fixed white light was shown from the new, sixty-eight-foot tower for the first time on August 11, 1871.   Congress appropriated $42,000 on June 12, 1917 for a new combination light and fog station to be constructed on the west breakwater pierhead. However, due to World War I and a lack of additional funds, Completion of the lighthouse was delayed several years, and the new light did not become operational until June 9, 1925, when it replaced the light that had been shining on the hill overlooking the harbor for a hundred years. The next twenty years saw the slow deterioration of the defunct lighthouse. Near the end of World War II, town officials began a discussion of needed improvements to Fairport, and the suggestion was made to raze the dilapidated lighthouse. The town rallied to save the old lighthouse, founding the Fairport Harbor Historical Society, whose mission was to preserve and celebrate the town’s nautical heritage. The Society sought and received permission from the government to turn the lighthouse and keeper’s dwelling into a Marine Museum. Once news of the endeavor spread, donations from retired sailors and landlubbers alike soon came pouring in - old logbooks, sextants, photographs, pieces of historical vessels, compasses, and steering wheels. The museum, the country’s first lighthouse marine museum, opened in 1945. Visitors can now walk through the same space where runaway slaves once hid, gaze on historic photographs of the men who cared for the beacon, and read the log books of ships that were guided to safety by Fairport’s light.