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Each May, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), offers lighthouses to the public and other entities as part of its mission to deliver value and savings in federal real estate for taxpayers. This year, GSA is offering a record number of lighthouses, including at least six to nonprofits and government entities, and at least four to the public through auctions.
Although the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) may continue to maintain active aids to navigation at or near specific lighthouses, the structures themselves are often no longer critical to the USCG’s mission needs. To protect the history and heritage of lighthouses, Congress passed the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000 (NHLPA) in an effort to find new stewards for the lighthouses.
Initially, under the NHLPA, lighthouses may be transferred at no cost to federal agencies, state and local governments, nonprofits, educational agencies, and community development organizations. These entities must be financially able to maintain the historic light station, and make the station available for education, park, recreation, cultural, or historic preservation purposes for the public at reasonable times and under reasonable conditions. This process starts with GSA issuing a Notice of Availability (NOA) and is followed by an application review by the National Park Service.
If a new owner is not found through the process, the lighthouse is later offered for competitive sale to the public by GSA through an online auction to the highest bidder.
This year, GSA has issued NOAs for
six historic lighthouses in five states.
Lynde Point Lighthouse, Old Saybrook, Connecticut
Nobska Lighthouse, Falmouth (Woods Hole), Massachusetts
Plymouth/Gurnet Lighthouse, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Warwick Neck Light, Warwick, Rhode Island
Little Mark Island and Monument, Harpswell, Maine
Erie Harbor North Pier Lighthouse, Erie, Pennsylvania (NOA period recently closed)
Additionally, GSA is offering the following four historic lighthouses for sale by auction to the highest bidder.
Penfield Reef Lighthouse, Fairfield, Connecticut
Stratford Shoal Light, East Setauket, New York
Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead Light, Cleveland, Ohio
Keweenaw Waterway Lower Entrance Light, Chassell, Michigan
Since the NHLPA program’s inception in 2000, over 150 lighthouses have been conveyed to new owners, including 81 lights to local governments and nonprofit entities through no-cost transfers and about 70 sold via public auction. Public auctions have raised over $10 million dollars for the USCG to reinvest in its Aids to Navigation mission. Auction sales have ranged from $10,000 to $933,888.
If you are interested in applying for one of the lighthouses, letters of interest can be sent to:
U.S. General Services Administration
Real Property Utilization and Disposal Division
10 Causeway Street – 11th Floor
Boston, MA 02222
Attention: Sonia Allon-Singh
All letters must include the following information: Name of property; name of eligible entity; point of contact’s, title, address, phone and email. Additionally, nonprofit agencies must provide a copy of their state-certified articles of incorporation before the end of the 60-day notice period. Letters can be mailed to:
Editor’s Note: The time element for some of the lighthouses may have already started, or expired, by the time we went to press, however, we did post the notices on our Facebook page and very brief stories appeared in numerous newspapers across the nation. We have only pictured some of the lighthouses that are available.
This story appeared in the
Jul/Aug 2023 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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