Digest>Archives> August 2005

Tower Talk

Is lighthouse preservation reaching a stalemate?

By Timothy Harrison

Comments?    

Is the interest in saving our lighthouses dead as a movement?

How much longer can the same small base of lighthouse preservationists continue to support the preservation causes for all our lighthouses?

These are questions I ask myself every day, and these are questions we should all be concerned about.

This summer, I’ve had the chance to attend a number of lighthouse events throughout the New England states. What I have seen are the same people, over and over again, who have traveled to one lighthouse after another throughout the region. Many travel to lighthouse events outside of their region, but it is almost always nearly the same people.

While we are making progress in saving lighthouses, that progress is extremely slow. The facts are clear, there are very few new people getting involved in lighthouse preservation.

While the current base of preservationists can save some lighthouses, if new people are not recruited, some lighthouses will not be saved, and others will cost much more to restore, thus also placing them in jeopardy of being lost. While we are desperately trying to save the actual structures, much of the history of the lighthouses is also disappearing forever. Photographs are destroyed, records are thrown out, and memories die. We are trying, but we need your help; we cannot do it alone.

Yes, lighthouse preservationists and communities have saved some of the lighthouses and some of the history, but much more is now in imminent danger of being lost.

Only you can make a difference. Get involved with a lighthouse group. Donate to lighthouse groups. Encourage people, libraries, doctor’s offices, hospitals, and schools to subscribe to Lighthouse Digest or give a gift subscription to Lighthouse Digest.

Lighthouse Digest is the only magazine that is desperately trying to spread the word about what lighthouse preservationists are doing as well as tell and save the stories of the families that served at these historic structures.

Time is running out.

However, you and only you, can still make a difference.

This story appeared in the August 2005 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.

All contents copyright © 1995-2024 by Lighthouse Digest®, Inc. No story, photograph, or any other item on this website may be reprinted or reproduced without the express permission of Lighthouse Digest. For contact information, click here.


Subscribe
to Lighthouse Digest



USLHS Marker Fund


Lighthouse History
Research Institute


Shop Online












Subscribe   Contact Us   About Us   Copyright Foghorn Publishing, 1994- 2024   Lighthouse Facts     Lighthouse History