Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse will hold open house to mark centennial - The News-Herald
Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse is getting ready to mark 100 years of serving commercial and recreational boaters in Northeast Ohio.
The lighthouse, which is actually located in Painesville Township, will hold an open house from noon to 4 p.m. June 7 to help celebrate the building’s centennial.
Visitors should park in lot P1 at Headlands Beach State Park and Headlands Dunes State Nature Preserve. They will then walk 1/2 mile along the easternmost path to the lighthouse, a news release stated. Volunteers will be available to direct guests and answer questions.
Sheila Consaul, a resident of Virginia, purchased the structure in 2011 for $71,010. She bought it in an online auction conducted by the U.S. General Services Administration.
The building was offered for sale in an auction after being declared as no longer needed by the federal government. This structure is situated west of the Grand River’s mouth on the stone and steel breakwater that juts into Lake Erie from Headlands Beach State Park and Headlands Dunes State Nature Preserve.
Consaul has spent the last 14 years renovating the lighthouse into a summer home.
It consists of three bedrooms; three bathrooms; four floors, including a basement; and a railed-in outdoor platform called a widow’s walk that surrounds the tower. The structure is 42 feet tall and encompasses about 3,000 square feet.
Renovation costs have totaled more than $300,000, she estimated in an email exchange on May 30. Consaul is the first person to live in the lighthouse since the late 1940s.
The building was constructed over several years at the Lighthouse Depot in Buffalo, New York, and transported to its current location aboard the steamer SS Wotan.
First lit on June 9, 1925, the structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building’s beacon continues to serve as an active aid to navigation and is maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard. In addition, the structure houses a National Weather Service station, Station FAIO1.
As a navigational aid, Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse is a successor to the Fairport Harbor Lighthouse at 129 Second St. in Fairport Harbor Village.
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The light in the Second Street structure was discontinued in 1925. That 60-foot-tall building, constructed in 1871, is still standing today as part of the Fairport Harbor Marine Museum and Lighthouse.