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After 30 continuous years “on the job,” the lantern room high atop the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse in Rochester, New York was removed, leaving the historic 1822 lighthouse headless for the second time in its long history.
The lantern room, which had been painstakingly recreated in 1984 by students and their teachers at Edison Technical High School, was in reasonably good condition but the massive brick collar supporting it had badly deteriorated. Water had invaded the collar, seriously eroding both bricks and mortar to the point that its ability to support the lantern room was called into question by noted restoration architect, John Bero, who regularly monitors the condition of both the tower and keeper’s dwelling for the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse Historical Society.
But in order to repair the collar, the lantern room had to come off. It took five months and a team that included lighthouse trustees Tom Clayton and Gene Edwards, architects John Bero and Virginia Searl from Bero Architecture PLLC, and the extraordinarily talented masons and construction workers from C.P. Ward, Inc. to plan the “high stakes” (literally and figuratively) maneuver of lifting the lantern room and its cast iron deck off the brick collar. But all went flawlessly on August 14th.
The lantern room underwent refurbishment on the side lawn of the lighthouse while the masons of C.P. Ward., Inc. repaired the tower’s brick collar. The lighthouse was open for visitation during the work.
This is the second time the lighthouse has been headless, although this time was much less than the first time the lighthouse went topless. In the1880s, after the lighthouse had previously been discontinued, its lantern room was removed and the lighthouse stood headless for the next 100 years. But then, thanks to the students from the Edison Technical High School who built a new lantern room in 1984, the lighthouse again stood with dignity.
The current $60,000 removal and restoration of the lantern room was done in preparation for a new $34,000 4th order replica Fresnel lens manufactured by Artworks of Florida that was installed in the tower in September. The $60,000 restoration project was paid for Monroe County, which owns the lighthouse, and the $34,000 replica lens was paid for by a private benefactor.
The removal of the lantern is shown here in photos that were taken by Fred Amato of the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse, www.GeneseeLighthouse.org. The lantern room has since been returned to the top of the tower.
This story appeared in the
Nov/Dec 2014 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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