Want a Free Light House?

By Don Rittner

Back in June, workers began restoring the exterior of the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse that overlooks the Portland harbor on Maine's southeastern coast. Built in 1897, the small, squat, whitewashed building was given to the Spring Point Ledge Light Trust, a local nonprofit group. The Maine Lights Program entrusts the state's lighthouses to grassroots preservation organizations for safekeeping.

In 2ooo, the National Park Service recommended that 20 light houses be transferred to new owners in an attempt to preserve these historic artifacts that are either being closed or are already closed by the Coast Guard. This was a result of the new National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. The Coast Guard has 300 lighthouses under their watch.

In July of this year, two National Register-listed lighthouses in Maine and three lights in Michigan were up for grabs. Goose Rocks Light, built in 1890, is a 51-foot-tall structure on Penobscot Bay near Camden, Maine. Cuckolds Island Fog Light Signal, a 48-foot-tall octagonal tower in Boothbay Harbor near Southport, Maine, was built in 1892.

Besides the ones mentioned above were listed the light houses at Turkey Point Light Station, Elk River, Cecil County, Maryland; Baltimore Lighthouse, Chesapeake Bay, Anne Arundel County, Maryland; Petit Manan Light, (nearest town Milbridge), Washington County, Maine; Hog Island Shoal Light, Bristol County, East Passage of Narragansett Bay, Portsmouth, Rhode Island; Tongue Point Light, Bridgeport Breakwater, Bridgeport, Fairfield County, Connecticut; DeTour Reef Light, DeTour Village, Chippewa County, Michigan; Fort Gratiot Light Station, Port Huron, Michigan; and Harbor Beach Lighthouse, Lake Huron, Michigan. The five light houses that were up for grabs last month can be see at www.cr.nps.gov/maritime/nhlpa/noas2004.htm.

Under this new law, the Coast Guard can give the lighthouses to another federal agency, state and local government, or nonprofit that will operate the lighthouse for historic, recreational, educational or cultural purposes.

Now you’re probably wondering why I’m writing about lighthouses. There are none in the Capital District, right? There are more than 60 historic lighthouses in New York State, however, and 8 in the Hudson River (Kingston, Saugerties and Hudson are close). Yup, true, none here, but you know there has to be a local connection.

Many lighthouses around the country have Troy or West Troy Meneely fog bells in them.

In fact, Watervliet historian Gene Burns has been collecting data on this for a number of years and has found that 11 states have 23 lighthouses with West Troy Meneely fog bells in them. Here is his list:

Florida: Port Tampa

Maine: Isle Of Shols, Halfway Rock, Goat Island, Squirrel Point Portland Head, Cape Elizabeth, Bath, Burntcoat Harbour, Doubling Point Range Light, Perkins Island And St. Croix.

Iowa: Des Moines.

Maryland: Baltimore, Point No Point, St. Michaels

Massachusetts: Boston, Plymouth.

Michigan: Marquette.

New York: Port Jefferson, Saugerties,

North Carolina: Croatan.

Oregon: Astoria, Baker City.

Rhode Island: Castle Hill.

Vermont: Burlington Colchester Reef

Gene also mentioned that the one shipped to Iowa in 1912 weighed 3,800 lbs.

I surmised that Troy’s Clinton Meneely was not to be outdone by his brother, so I checked the Troy Meneely database that has been computerized by Jesse Brodnax at the Burden Museum in South Troy. Sure enough, Clinton Meneely also made bells for lighthouses. He made 5 for lighthouses in Tompkinsville, NY in September 1881 and 1882 (totaling 3649 pounds); one for Bangor, Maine, weighing 1170 pounds; and another for New York City in 1874, weighing a mere 994 pounds.

A 1200-pound fog bell, built by a Meneely (does not say which one) was made for an iron lighthouse in Lake Erie built in 1858. The bell was operated by clock works and tolled three times every minute in snowy and foggy weather. Originally, fog bells were rung by hand, clock works (mechanically), steam, and finally electric. As one lighthouse keeper manual stated: “The keeper on watch will look out for the occurrence of foggy or snowy weather, and during the continuance of either, the bells must be kept tolling both day and night.” Today, we use sirens, along with diaphones and diaphragm horns and the use of the soundless fog signal (a radiobeacon and GPS (Global Positioning System) that uses satellites orbiting the earth to pinpoint your position).

Now if I peaked your interest in lighthouses and bells, go over to the National Park Service at www.cr.nps.gov/maritime/ltsum.htm and check out their complete inventory of historic lighthouses in the country. Maybe you can find more with Meneely bells in them.

Ironically, as I was deciding to feature bells this week, I noticed a large one sitting in the front yard of a house on Balltown Road in Niskayuna. Sure enough, it was a Troy made Clinton Meneely bell. I have been hearing - and seeing - bells all week.