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The 149-year-old, aged and weathered ventilator ball atop the 1872 St. Simons Island Lighthouse in St. Simons Island, Georgia recently received some needed repairs.
However, getting the ventilator ball off the top of the 104-foot-tall tower was not for the faint of heart. But for Anthony Presutti and John Xipolitus of Razorback LLC who did the work, it was just another day on the job. They had recently also worked on two other beacons, the St. George Lighthouse and the Amelia Island Lighthouse, both in Florida.
First, the two men had to climb the spiral stairs of the St. Simons Island Lighthouse to the outside deck, then climb a ladder on the outside deck to the upper outside deck and carefully make their way onto the top of the cupola; then disconnect the ventilator ball, lower it to the lower outside deck, and carry it down the stairs to where it would be worked on by metalsmith Alex Klahm. Once the necessary repairs were made, the entire process was repeated, but this time going up.
This story appeared in the
Jul/Aug 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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