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Return of the Lantern
On June 29, 1990, after sitting on the ground for 21 years, the lantern of the Stratford Point Lighthouse in Stratford, Connecticut, was returned to its proper home. The Coast Guard had removed the lantern in 1969 to accommodate the installation of DCB-224 aerobeacons. This left a sad looking headless lighthouse. In 1990, after the aerobeacons had been removed and replaced with a smaller optic, the old lantern was restored and, as shown here, hoisted back atop the tower. This is the first time that we have published this 31-year-old photo, which is one more reason why we need your financial help to continue to document, scan, and publish photos like this, so that they can be saved for future generations.
Chicago’s Screw Pile Lighthouse
Shown here are the 1854 plans to build an approximately 80-foot-tall iron screwpile lighthouse in the harbor at Chicago, Illinois. As shown, the plans called for a separate keeper’s quarters to be built next to it. None of these plans were ever implemented.
Rock Island’s Shorter Tower
Shown here is the Rock Island Lighthouse on the St. Lawrence River near Clayton, New York, in 1895 before the height of the tower was raised in 1903. Early in the morning of July 16, 1901, forty-eight-year-old lighthouse keeper Michael J. Diepolder suffered a heart attack while going for an early morning swim. Though stricken, he managed to pull himself up onto the dock and stumble into the nearby workshop, where he was later found dead by his wife. After burying her husband, Emma Diepolder took over his job and served until September of that year, becoming the first and only female lighthouse keeper of the Rock Island Light Station.
West Quoddy’s Original Entryway
This vintage image shows Maine’s West Quoddy Head Lighthouse with its original entryway building to the tower, before an addition was built on to it. Unfortunately, we don’t know the year when the photo was taken. This image also shows curtains or drapes that were drawn in the lantern to protect the Fresnel lens from the harmful rays of the sun. Close examination of the photo of the space in between the house and the entryway building also shows the original oil house that once stood on the other side of the tower.
Santa Over Boston
The cover of the December 1993 edition of Lighthouse Digest, when we were still in the newsprint stage, featured a historic image of the Flying Santa plane flying past Boston Lighthouse as Santa was about to drop presents to the keeper’s families. The Flying Santa program continues to this day as a nonprofit, visiting New England lighthouses and Coast Guard stations.
Santa Lands at Nobska
George Morgan, playing the role of Santa Claus, lands at Nobska Lighthouse in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1993. For a number of years, George Morgan played the role of Santa for the Friends of the Flying Santa. To learn more about the program, or to donate, go to www.FlyingSanta.org.
This story appeared in the
Nov/Dec 2021 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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