The Lighthouse Preservation Society has helped orchestrate a series of events that has lead to the restoration of New England’s most endangered lighthouse, the Straitsmouth Island Light in Rockport, Massachusetts. That exciting development began with The Lighthouse Preservation Society’s winning a grant competition to document the most endangered historic structure in Essex County, Massachusetts. We successfully nominated the Straitsmouth Island Keeper’s House – a beautiful 1835 Gothic Revival light station on the verge of collapse – on behalf of the building’s owner, the Massachusetts Audubon Society.
Within weeks of the architectural laser scan documentation we had won, we were contacted by a major chemical company, which was looking for a “poster child” project to introduce their new chemically modified lumber product that is said to last 100 years. We again nominated the Straitsmouth Island Keeper’s House to them, and won the company’s agreement to supply the Audubon Society with an in-kind contribution of enough of their new wood product to completely renovate the building’s exterior.
During 2012, the Audubon Society finished half the exterior work, restoring the two worst sides of the structure – one of which had already caved-in. The other two remaining exterior sides were completed in 2013. The Lighhouse Preservation Society has offered to help with a second phase interior restoration, but so far, the Audubon Society has declined our assistance.
