At the mooring a few hundred feet out from the station, we hop into the dinghy, his sixththe sea took all the othersand from the stern I look at Waller, 59, in his thick-rimmed black and gray specs under a matching beanie rolled above his ears, rowing in galoshes and yellow waterproof fishing suspenders. In December 2014, just months after acquiring the lighthouse, Girard sold the property to Boon Island LLC for $119,673. Eva Philbricks father was an assistant keeper on Boon Island from 1913 to 1917. Lets talk about something more serious, more substantial, suggested Sager, 62, sporting a gray T-shirt, dark slacks, and stocking feet. Head: Isaac Dunham (1849 1850), John W. Bennett (1850 1851), Joshua Wilder, Jr. (1860 1861), James J. In December 2014, just months after acquiring the lighthouse, Girard sold the property to Boon Island LLC for $119,673. The local brewery makes a Minot Light, Thoreau wrote about it, and its been used in ads for Cape Cod Cranberries and American Tobacco cigarettes. One has to have a varied knowledge of things to be a lightkeeper. Shoals, Reefs, Harbor Lights, Islands in Rivers and Harbors. If you look out into the Atlantic, past the Scituate, Massachusetts, harbor you can see Minots Ledge Light blinking 114 feet above the swell. Most of the boats in the harbor have the names of other places across their sterns, and the dock where my grandma used to drop her catch is now lined with tchotchke shops. The same guy who purchases a meteorite that fell from the heavens in Ghana and places it in a little red wagon in his living quarters. During a brief lull at the outset of the storm, Keeper Bennett had rowed to the mainland to see about purchasing a new boat for the station, but his two assistant keepers, Joseph Wilson and Joseph Antoine, were in the tower fearing for their lives. Naval Museum in Kittery, Maine where it may be viewed by the public. A brand of on-the-ground and up-close philanthropy that assesses needs and then fashions programs to meet them. My dad grew up in the harbor the light protects, and my grandmother trolled for striped bass with a handline out past the ledge. It is two miles from Graves and allows tours. See Sarah Sager's age, phone number, house address, email address, social media accounts, public records, and check for criminal records on Spokeo. To date, 82 lighthouses have been transferred to public entities and nonprofits, and 66 have been sold for $8.2 million total. Crossing back over the bridge, we make our way up: five spiral clangy metal flights; past a bunk room, the keepers quarters, and a third-floor kitchen; and to the lantern room. Last year, in Boston Harbor, just north of Scituate, Dave Waller bought Graves Island Light, which is a direct design copy of Minots, for $933,888. No longer used as a main navigational aid, the lighthouse as we know it is slowly being rendered obsolete. Plans for original Minots Ledge Lighthouse, Granite blocks being assembled at Cohasset in 1857, Base of tower as it appeared on July 1, 1859, two double-dwellings were built at Cohasset, Memorial plaque ready for lowering to seafloor. Two lighthouse keepers were killed when it went down and theyre said to haunt the new house. The fact that it no longer belongs to the public that its owned by an individual who can turn it into a vacation house or tear it down feels like a transgression. During low tide when the sea was calm, the Indians would paddle out to offer dishes, ornaments, and beads as sacrifices to appease the Wicked One. Apparently these offerings were rejected, since by the 1750s eighty ships and 400 lives had been lost in the surrounding waters. After the events of 9/11 over a decade ago, without a primary need, government lighthouse maintenance funds were absorbed during the incorporation of the Coast Guard into homeland security, leaving enough only to maintain the automated lights and foghorns. Its peaceful. Boon Island Lighthouse, Maine at Lighthousefriends.com The catch? Florence Idella Batty: Memories of Maines Boon Island,, Keeper of the Light Was Painter of the Light,. I had read that. 17.5 At the cost of your own life, you would keep that light lit, says Waller. And, unless a lighthouse is decommissioned, the Coast Guard must be granted access to keep all the automated lights shining for those few mariners still looking for a guiding light. Turn north on 228, and follow East Street, Among other things, the lighthouse needs to be repointed and sealed up. Largest Seacoast Lights. Were climbing up this? I ask, as if its not obvious. To ease the burden, two assistant keepers, the stations first, were assigned to Boon Island in 1855. Sager is now fixing up two more lighthouses (Minots Ledge Light south of Boston and Maines Boon Island Light) he landed at auction when they were offloaded by the Coast Guard. His wife Florence recalled that in lieu of indoor toilets, each of the three families would cut off the tops of five-gallon tins of kerosene oil and place them in an outhouse. The men sought refuge in the tower as the angry seas damaged the fuel tanks, helicopter pad and generator building, and destroyed the boathouse and boat launch. Right in her hair.So after that, she started using the chamber pots. They always say the best government is a benevolent king because his heart is in the right place, he says. Sager acquired Minots Ledge Lighthouse at auction later in 2014 and then Michigans Grays Reef Lighthouse in 2016. That summer, they posted a notice of availability. 3rd Email Address: See available information. This light is best viewed from the water, though distant views are possible The island in the morning was one of the grandest sights I ever witnessed. He says he didnt have any solid reason for buying it, just that same deep-seated nostalgia and a long-standing but loose family tie. Thomas Farragher is a Globe columnist. The lighthouse is privately owned. See Photos. 6 Lighthouses the Government Is Giving Away or Selling - Treehugger With . She started in Hatteras, North Carolina, near where she grew up and moved north, toward Hull, Mass., toward my dad. The stone tower, built of granite supplied by Joseph W. Coburn of Boston, is 133 feet high -- the tallest lighthouse in New England. Keeper Williams and his assistants saved the six crewmembers, though afterward, the keepers and the crew were almost equally incapacitated by exposure. In 1919, Keeper Harry Smith and his two assistants rescued seven men aboard the schooner Hazel E. Ritcey, after it struck a rock and sank near the island. In 1816, keepers salaries varied from $150 per year at Plymouth Lighthouse to a well-deserved high at Boon Island of $400. Find the closest hotels to Boon Island Lighthouse, Select a photograph to view a photo gallery, Boon Island, a tiny outcropping of granite, only two football fields long and fourteen feet above sea level at its highest point, is located six-and-a-half miles off Maines southern coast. Great Lakes Lighthouses, Seacoasts, Islands, Sounds. The 300-year-old Boston Light, the countrys first lighthouse, is located on Little Brewster Island in the Boston Harbor. Shad Sager - Previous Managing Member for Skyline Music Group ARLHS USA-545. (8 minutes) Bobby Sager thinks in bulk. First, a little background: Sager grew up in Malden, where he met and married his high school sweetheart. Meanwhile the numbers of lighthouses are declining. They try to put them in the hands of groups that will keep them open to the public, but sometimes, like in Minots case, no public entity wants the responsibility. 12,800 See list below of other lighthouses that allow tours and lodging. On April 16, 1851, the fierce winds of a noreaster left the tower reeling in the pounding seas and blinding snow. If I didnt exist, the ships wouldnt be crashing into the rocks, he says, deadpan with his eyes to the floor. 2 175 steps were required to climb the tower, a task the keepers had to perform several times each night to trim and fill the lamps, often toting heavy containers of lamp oil. from Minot. Two days later a Gloucester fisherman found a bottle containing a final message from the doomed keepers: The beacon cannot last any longer. What kind of a guy, Fine. He and his partner made their fortune by transforming a small Boston jewelry liquidator into a worldwide financial advisory company. While the island itself is barren, it has a lush history best told in the words and deeds of its keepers and their families. There was always something to do on the island. The act sets a high bar for ongoing and pricey preservation and education. Summer Street and then right on Border Street. Sager grew up in Malden, on the North Shore of Massachusetts, so maybe he just has that same nostalgia-fueled fascination. I was scared out in that placeIt was an awful life., On August 20, 1932, a newspaper printed a letter about the life of a keeper at Boon Island. Its not just the Minots Ledge lighthouse thats changing hands. Brazil. White Shoal Light. In May 2000, Boon Island Lighthouse, from which a flashing white light, visible for nineteen nautical miles, is emitted every five seconds, was leased to the American Lighthouse Foundation. No one bit on the original bid, and this June, they put it up again for $10,000. The company was incorporated in California twelve years ago and is no longer active. Property tax battle looms over Graves Light in Boston Harbor The illuminating apparatus was changed in 1885 to burn mineral oil instead of lard oil, and then in 1894, a new second-order Fresnel lens was installed atop the lighthouse. Unlike my grandmother, Im not pulling bass into a boat by hand. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Graves Light sits on a rocky ledge in the middle of Boston Harbor, surrounded by water. The ladder up from sea level, Graves Light, built in 1905. Pakistan. One promising exception is Graves Light Station, offshore from Boston, which has outlasted the Perfect Storm, among many poundings. Waller on the bridge between structures, on the lighthouse acreage. Some time around 1a.m. He imagines his family gathering there on sultry summer nights, the reflection of a full moon dazzling like diamonds on the Atlantic. 2 Minot's Ledge Lighthouse, Massachusetts at Lighthousefriends.com Thomas Point Lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay, built in 1875 , still in its original location, and still used as a navigational beacon, offers seasonal tours by boat from Annapolis, Maryland. Here was the new iron light-house, then unfinished, in the shape of an egg-shell painted red, and placed high on iron pillars, like the ovum of a sea monster floating on the wavesWhen I passed it the next summer it was finished and two men lived in it, and a lighthouse keeper said that in a recent gale it had rocked so as to shake the plates off the table. By 13 he was a paper boy, and on Saturday mornings he helped his. We cut off the cabin and converted it into a barge to haul heavy materials out to Graves, says Waller, referring to the historic lighthouse he owns. (Photo: Javaris Johnson/Snipezart). Seeing the keepers predicament, the assistants in the lighthouse sprang into action and used a rope to lower Assistant Keeper Whitman to the water where he was able to seize Reamy. Yeaton (1864 1867), Joshua K. Card (1867 1874), Alfred J. Leavitt (1874 1886), Orrin M. Lamprey (1886 1888), William C. Williams (1888 1911), Mitchell Blackwood (1911 1916), Harry Smith (1916 1920), Albert Staples (1920 1923), Harold I. Hutchins (1924 1933), Charles E. Tracy (1933 1937), Hoyt P. Smith (1937 1942), William Parmenter (1944 1945), John Morris (at least 1945), Archie McLaughlin (at least 1947), Jerry Russell (at least 1954), Robert Edwards (1970 1973). Fortunately for Graves, we really care a lot about it.. Australia. Its Graves third bridgethe first one washed away in the Blizzard of 1978; the second was destroyed in the Perfect Storm (as titled in the book and movie) of 1991. Weve all stopped to take a picture of these icons, lighthouses, at some point, but in another 50 or 100 years we might not be able to. Writer, Editor, Skier. At the time it was the most anyone had paid for a lighthouse. Sager also was a partner and the president of Gordon Brothers Group from 1985 to 2000. Sager is now fixing up two more lighthouses (Minot's Ledge Light south of Boston and Maine's Boon Island Light) he landed at auction when they were offloaded by the Coast Guard. Many link the name Boon Island to the wrecks of the trading vessel. Bobby Sager: the not-so-secret millionaire - The Telegraph Past Addresses: See available information. The Coast Guard has already divested the vast majority of offshore lighthouses, says DEntremont. A bell-buoy was placed on Boon Island Ledge, about three miles east of Boon Island, starting in 1858 to mark this navigational hazard. God bless you all. The body of Joseph Antoine washed ashore later at Nantasket. Dave has done such wonderful things with his lighthouse, says Snowman. Sign up today. Outside a lot. It lets the federal government give away lighthouses to qualifying local governments, non-profits, or community development organizations. Ive been knocked down by it on the wharf beside the light, and opening a window to look out more than halfway [65 feet] up the tower, Ive had as much as three buckets-full dashed in my face.. Therefore on these considerations I feel myself inadequate to the task, unless government will supply me with some of the above stated articles.. Sri Lanka. Its ledges were among the most perilous spots on the eastern seaboard until a lighthouse was established there in 1811, following James Madisons approval. Some sit submerged under the waters of the Chesapeake Bay or are about to topple over in the Great Lakes. After explaining exactly how the lighthouse was constructed, Swift concluded by justifying the choice of a pile lighthouse instead of a stone lighthouse: Time didnt wait long to rule on the matter. On October 13th, Bobby Sager, Polaroids chairman, won the auction and bought the lighthouse for $222,000. Sager was one of the final bidders for Graves Lighthouse in 2013 and acquired Maines Boon Island Lighthouse earlier in 2014 from its private owner. The new owner is Bobby Sager, a lighthouse enthusiast and philanthropist with enough assets to fund a thorough restoration of the tower. 3 south from Boston, to Route 228. When a whale went by, spouting, Id make believe that was my submarine. And Harold Hutchins daughter Shirley Kelley said: As a kid, it was my idea of Paradise! What kind of a guy can buy a lighthouse? Waller has done a ton of work on the tower. The entries range from the weather 40 degrees, light rain in the morning to more compelling matters: Captured a rowboat full of German sailors in the fog, held them until Navy picked them up three days later. In addition to the two dwellings, one of which was fashioned out of an old barn, the inshore station also featured a storehouse, boathouse, and a blacksmiths shop. Its 36 degrees out, and the sweeping waves splashing up make the scene even more surreal. Maybe he just wants to be able to see it flash. #ada-button-frame { In June 2007, Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team divers were transported to the waters near Minots Ledge Lighthouse aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Abbie Burgess. Bobby Sager - Address & Phone Number | Whitepages Bobby Sager, chairman of Polaroid and founder of the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Road Show, wrote to Assad's adviser Bouthaina Shaaban that international media distorted and. Philanthropist and photographer Bobby Sager, founder of the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow, met Moise in 2005. Rwanda. On October 13th, Bobby Sager, Polaroid's chairman, won the auction and bought the lighthouse for $222,000. Sager has been taking photos of youngsters from war-torn countries for several years now, as he and his family have traveled the world practicing what he calls "eyeball-to-eyeball philanthropy.". In this design, interlocking granite blocks were placed on foundation stones weighing two tons each. In 2000, the GSA, the Coast Guard and the Department of the Interior passed The National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, an amendment to the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. To see these, take Route The tragedy that earned the area its name happened in 1754, when a prominent Boston merchant named George Minot lost a valuable ship there; henceforth it was called Minots Ledge. I feel irrationally possessive of Minots light, even though Ive never been in the tower. Beacon in a storm might be one of the most overplayed metaphors of all time. On January 26, 1839, the Grovers were forced to retreat to the Light House as a place of safety as the sea broke into the porch, unhung the doors and forced the door of the dwelling house and entered the lower rooms, causing considerable damage. The Grovers had faced a similar situation on October 31, 1829 as recorded in the keepers logbook. Seacoasts, Sounds, River Entry, Bays, Channels, Range Lights. See Photos. Salted cod, sea fowl, and lobsters ranked high in the keepers diets, though lobster was far from being a delicacy. Morris, his wife, their two-year-old son, and two coastguardsmen sought refuge in a small, sturdy structure, and a helicopter was dispatched to drop food to them after the waves subsided. Christopher Sager, Santa Clarita, CA (91350) - Spokeo That lighthouse is part of our narrative, and I dont think were the only weirdos who put emotional weight on places. I havent looked at my phone since we left. Use Sometimes nothing makes them happy. I thought that spending my time making more money wasnt going to make my life better, he told me. On the third day of the expedition, remnants of iron beams, believed to be support legs for the fallen lighthouse, were located with the assistance of a remote-operated vehicle. Find your friends on Facebook. Bobby has created an easy way for those that would like to make a difference and a way for anyone to send a Hope Soccer Ball to underprivileged children. The first light of dawn revealed only the bent remains of a few pilings. I dont know how far up the solid water comes. On November 11, 1818, Keeper Grover sent a letter to Collector Dearborn that included the following: I have just been informed that I am dead, but I am yet alive and hope to live to see those people brought to justice for making the report; one of the three is the man that has sent you his recommendation. Bobby Sager - Chairman - Sager Family Foundation | LinkedIn Rick Friedman/Sager Family Found Stay up-to-date with important news developments, delivered right to your inbox.. As early as 1695, a schooner crashed on those treacherous rocks and sank, leaving no survivors. The lighthouse towers overhead, tall and proud and quiet, like an ode to maritime history. Three years later, Hanna left and was replaced by Eliphalet Grover. Indeed life inside the lighthouse did prove precarious. Otis Walsh, an assistant at the lighthouse waiting for Tornberg to relieve him, was watching the men approach and radioed for help when he knew they were in trouble. Asked Navy to reimburse us for their food; Navy refused. The Germans had been spies mapping the harbor in World War I. To have the waves, like a pack of hungry wolves, eyeing you always, night and day, and from time to time making a spring at you, almost sure to have you at last.. Not wanting to see the lens returned to the Coast Guard, the Greater York Region Chamber of Commerce held a raffle that generated $2,000, enough to pay the premium for two years. 1 To prevent further casualties, the aptly named Captain Michael Neptune Brennock was hired as a lifeguard, and only workers who could swim were employed. As one keeper here recently said, I thought all one had to know how to do out here was to clean, paint, and polish brass, but I have found out that one has to be doctor, painter, steeplejack, glazier, boatman, gasoline engineer, electrician, stonecutter and even a cook when the women folks leave us in the fall., Miriam (Dolby) Hammel, wife of a coastguardsman stationed on the island during World War II to watch for German U-boats, had fonder memories of Boon Island. Phone & Email (1) All Addresses (1) Family (4) Social; Court (2) And More; When no qualified custodian was found, an online auction for the lighthouse was opened on May 14, 2014. Be selfish. Perhaps its best that the lighthouse has been left for the ghosts to inhabit in solitude. It says a lot about Dave Waller that he and Bobby Sager have worked out an agreement, making Sager a partner in the Graves Light project. through Cohasset for just under three miles to Summer Street. As a kid, he sailed by it in his dads boat. The flashes within a group were two seconds apart, while the groups of flashes were separated by five seconds of darkness. Following two shipwrecks in 1810, a twenty-five-foot tall tower topped by an octagonal lantern was constructed at a cost of $2,377 along with a stone keepers house for $150. The dory was leaking so badly, that one man had to bale while the other manned the oars. "If you apply too. As a strong wind was blowing offshore, the men decided to continue to the tower rather than turn back, but they were swept past the lighthouse and out to sea. One exception is the countrys actual last official lightkeeper still working for the Coast Guard: Her name is Sally Snowman, and her job and second home, Boston Light, are in jeopardy. Brides (1940 at least 1942) . 26.25 When we have high tides with big storms, we actually become two islands. The damage has limited public access in recent years, and at the bottom of the cliff below the lighthouse, rock-filled cages, used as protection from erosion until they were ripped out of the ground in 2018 by a storm, roll around like tumbleweedsmaking the future of Boston Light even more ominous. Site open; tower closed, except for those with dinner reservations. The museum has the following table of lens sizes posted. At this time, the second-order lens was dismantled and placed in storage in the tower, and a third-order Fresnel lens was installed. The underside for the placement of the fresnel lens, Graves Light. Minots Ledge Lighthouse lost its resident keepers in 1947, when the light was electrified and automated. The other occupants of the island at the time were Head Keeper Williams and his wife, and S. H. Sawyer, who was filling in for Assistant Keeper Seaward, who was ashore taking care of his wife. Hanna soon realized the sum was insufficient and requested $450 annually. Rocks weighing fifteen tons or more were moved twenty feet, and two outbuildings were swept away. He plans to knock down one ceiling to combine two floors into one, transforming it into a panoramic conference room sort of a majestic aquatic meeting space. He found eight dead black ducks that had smashed into the tower, and four more on the rocks below. But who owns the thing? Approximate Weight of Assembled Lens (lbs.) Located at 61-1/2 Water Street near Independent Street in downtown Newburyport, about 0.4 mile (650 m) east of US 1. Graves . William H. Swift, the builder of the lighthouse, felt compelled to respond to the published reports with a letter to the editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser. There were two Coast Guard keepers on the island when the storm hit, tossing boulders across the island. Some have been preserved by gigantic efforts: Already Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, the tallest lighthouse in the country at 193 feet, and Gay Head Light on Marthas Vineyard, among others, have been physically moved back from the edge of the sea, a painstaking process involving digging up the foundation and rolling it inland on hydraulic beams. New Haven's Southwest Ledge Lighthouse for sale - New Haven Register In 1847, a crew began working from a schooner anchored next to the ledge, and over two years and $39,000 later, on January 1, 1850, Minots Ledge Lighthouse was illuminated for the first time. In 1890, the stations cracked 1,200-pound bell was recast and placed atop a newly completed stone and brick oil house that measured sixteen by fourteen feet. We make our way on up the tower, where Waller shows me the original blueprints of Graves, then pulls out ledgers containing 800 pages of old keepers logs, handwritten in India ink and printed by the U.S. Lighthouse Service. Keeper Williams was inside the tower worrying about what he and his boys could enjoy the next day, when suddenly there was a crash on the parapet deck. Hanna later returned to the service as keeper at Franklin Island. Stories about the lighthouse dovetailed with our familys history. Grover was cleared in court, but the accusations, and other difficulties, would continue. And, with that, the Sager Family Traveling Foundation and Roadshow was born. Since purchasing the lighthouse at a government auction seven years ago, Dave. Everything gets done according to what he wants. Sager hasnt officially said anything about what hes planning to do; hes actually been radio silent since the sale. UNLOCK PROFILE. After three years spent cutting the rock to form a foundation, the first six courses of the lighthouse were laid, dovetailed, and dowelled together in 1858. He says no. Fun? Bobby Sager says, repeating my question. Though the government has the right to reject all bids if it believes a fair market price has not been achieved, the $78,000 bid was approved a few weeks after the auction closed, and the lighthouse was awarded to Arthur Girard a real estate developer from Portland, Maine. The tin, above which she was perched, had been two-thirds full and when the sea come, it struck the back of the toilet and it knocked the windows out of the back of the toilet and all that stuff come right out of the square can right onto Arothusa! Third Assistant: Isaac A. Dunham (1850), Kendall Pearson (1851), Samuel Gardiner (1851), W.H. The island is now owned by philanthropist and lighthouse enthusiast Bobby Sager. It was above being a captain of a ship, because you were the guardian of all the ships, he adds. lens, which had been removed from the tower in 1993, was given to the Kittery Historical and I barely know how to read a nautical chart (although there is an app for that), and sometimes, even though its irrational, that feels like a loss. The light from six lens-lanterns was displayed from April 22 to May 1, while the old lens was removed and the new one installed. Pier or Breakwater Lights in Harbors. Im not sure if its the romance, or the ghosts, but its always drummed up a kind of fascination. When he ran out of money a year into the renovation, he teamed up with another original bidder who matched his million, a local businessman named Bobby Sager, who has hosted celebrities like Sting and Tom Hanks at Graves. You realize they had it all figured out long ago, says Waller, now a pro at finding the right tools and the right people. Its finding ways to reverse 40 years of dark and dirty neglect1970s linoleum curling up over rotted wood, rusted metal walls, wilting sheets of paint. Plus: lighthouses where you can spend the night. When John Morris was in charge of Boon Island Lighthouse in December 1945, a similar storm struck the island. I ask Waller if he ever imagines himself as one of the lightkeepers. The Blizzard of 1978 helped write the last chapter in Boon Islands history as a manned light. Minots blinks 143, so people call it the I Love You Light, and before Ray J made it a bad R&B song, my parents would sign letters and then send texts 143. Until construction of the new dwelling was completed in 1905, animosity festered, as was noted in a letter by First Assistant Charles W. Torry, charging the Keeper of that station with neglect of duty, in not properly keeping an account of oil expended at the station, and a waste of the Government property in throwing surplus oil away in order to make his account of expenditures tally. Apparently, no disciplinary action was taken against Keeper Williams; but Torry soon found himself unemployed. . At first, Boon Island was barely able to attract and retain a keeper. Lighthouses across the country are crumbling amid worsening storms and dwindling funds.
