Light Hearted

This installment features highlights from an interview that was originally recorded in March 2019. Matt Rosenberg is a high school English teacher and also the seasonal caretaker and modern day keeper of the famous Cape Neddick Light Station in York, better known as the Nubble Light. Nubble Light Station, York, Maine The light station is owned by the Town of York and is managed by the town’s Parks...

Drum Point Lighthouse Cove Point Lighthouse The exhibits at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland, focus on maritime heritage and the natural history of the Chesapeake Bay. On the museum grounds is Drum Point Lighthouse, a cottage-style screw-pile structure that was originally located on the Chesapeake Bay near the mouth of the Patuxent River.  The lighthouse was moved to its new ho...

This is an edited version of an interview first recorded in 2019 and appearing in Light Hearted episode 26. Eric Jay Dolin is the author of 14 books and dozens of articles on American history. The book that’s discussed in this interview is the acclaimed  Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse,  published in 2016. C. Douglas Kroll, in Sea History Magazine , wrote of ...

Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse Located in the inner harbor of Baltimore, Maryland, Historic Ships IN Baltimore celebrates more than 200 years of Maryland’s naval and maritime history. The site’s attractions include the sloop-of-war Constellation , the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. Among the other highlights are the USS Torsk , a Navy submarine commissioned...

Borden Flats Lighthouse in Fall River, Massachusetts, was bought in 2011 by Nick Korstad under the guidelines of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act, and Nick fixed it up and opened it up to the public for overnight stays. In 2018, it was bought by Kevin Ferias, who has continued to operate it as a very successful B&B. It’s now for sale , which is discussed in this interview. Eas...

Sandy Hook Light Station, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. The lighthouse that stands at the end of the long spit of land known as Sandy Hook, on the approach to New York Harbor, began service in 1764, making it the oldest standing lighthouse tower in the United States. The octagonal rubblestone tower stands 103 feet tall. Tom Hoffman The light remains active, with the Fresnel lens still in plac...

Horton Point Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont Horton Point Lighthouse is on the north side of eastern Long Island, New York, in the area known as the North Fork. The granite and brick building consists of a two floor keeper’s dwelling attached to a square, 59-foot-tall lighthouse tower. The building was nearly demolished after World War II, but the Southold Historical Society and the...

Dianne Ballon Located in the historic shipbuilding city of Bath, Maine, the Maine Maritime Museum includes exhibits dedicated to the past, present, and future of Maine’s storied waterways. For lighthouse buffs, there’s an exhibit called “Into the Lantern: A Lighthouse Experience.” Opening this past February, the exhibit “Lost and Found: Sounds of the Maine Coast” is a collaboration between s...

Sally and Wayne Wheeler This is part two of a two part interview with Wayne and Sally Wheeler, recorded in Washington state in March 2024. Wayne is a former Coast Guard officer who founded the U.S. Lighthouse Society in San Francisco in 1984, and he is now the president emeritus of the Society. The idea for the formation of the Society blossomed when Wayne became the chief of the Aids to Navigatio...

Wayne Wheeler in 1983 The name Wayne Wheeler has become synonymous with lighthouse preservation and education. He’s one of the pioneers of the lighthouse preservation movement and one of the foremost experts on lighthouse history in the U.S. A 1962 graduate of Syracuse University, Wayne spent 23 years in the Coast Guard in the aids to navigation field. In the early 1980s, when he was the chief of...

Edward Peppitt is the southeast England representative for the Association of Lighthouse Keepers, or ALK , and he produces and hosts a podcast called Keeping Watch . He’s also a fundraising ambassador for Shift MS , a charity aimed at keeping multiple sclerosis sufferers as active as possible. Ed Peppitt at Happisburgh Lighthouse in England. Ed has written a new book called The Beacon Bike. It tel...

Gene Davis with a fourth-order Fresnel lens from New Dungeness Lighthouse, Washington. The Coast Guard Museum Northwest, located on an active Coast Guard base on the waterfront in Seattle, Washington, opened in 1976. The museum serves as a showcase for some of the Coast Guard’s most important stories, lessons, and accomplishments, and the museum’s extensive archives are available to researchers. I...

Tony Ashdon (left) with Light Hearted host Jeremy D’Entremont. Photo by John Lopez The guest in this episode, Tony Ashdon, spent 22 years in the Coast Guard including some time as a lighthouse keeper. Tony spent some years on an aids to navigation team that serviced lighthouses and other aids in District One, in the northeastern U.S. He was also part of an inspection team for a while. He spe...

The podcast “The Lighthouse Lowdown” was launched in 2022 by two residents of Kansas City, Missouri, Emily Straight and Vince Bailey. To date they have published almost 50 episodes, covering history, spooky stories, and all the “things that make lighthouses cooler than your average tower.” Emily Straight and Vince Bailey at Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse in North Carolina Emily...

Harbor Beach Lighthouse, Michigan (USLHS archives) The Michigan Lighthouse Alliance (MLA), founded in 2003, encompasses more than 50 preservation groups and lighthouse stakeholders from around the state of Michigan. The purpose of the Alliance is to advocate for the preservation of the historic aids to navigation on the Great Lakes. The MLA holds a conference every two years, and this year’s will...

This is an edited version of an interview that was featured in Light Hearted episode 44 in January 2020. Joseph Smith  has been a theatrical performer based in New York City since 1995. His passion is to create excitement and curiosity about history by giving voice to stories that celebrate the human spirit. He has written and performed a portrayal of Augustin Fresnel, the inventor of the Fresnel...

Hereford Inlet Lighthouse (courtesy photo) Hereford Inlet, a break in the barrier islands along the east side of Cape May, New Jersey, was used by whalers as far back as the 17 th century. Shifting sands and a strong current made the inlet dangerous for mariners. As coastal shipping and the use of the inlet increased, funds for a lighthouse were appropriated in 1872. A wood frame combined keeper’s...

We’ve produced almost 300 episodes of the podcast Light Hearted i n the past five years. Most of the interviews we’ve done have been a half hour to an hour. We realize that listening to an hour-long podcast is not something everyone wants to do, so we’re introducing something we call Light Hearted Lite . In this new series, some favorite interviews from the past five years have been edited d...

Dani and Guin doing what they love There are three segments in this episode. First, 11-year-old Guinevere Porter and her best friend Dani, Kentucky residents, talk about their visits to some beautiful and very tall lighthouses in Georgia, Florida, and elsewhere. As they correctly point out, we need kids to get interested in lighthouses. They will be the ones caring for them in the future, and also...

The seas off the northern California coast are notoriously rough, and no area is more treacherous than St. George Reef, which is the tip of a submerged volcanic mountain about six miles offshore. Construction of a lighthouse on the reef began in 1883. It took nine years to complete the massive 90-foot-tall granite tower on top of a 50-foot-tall base. A powerful first-order Fresnel lens was install...

Whale Rock Lighthouse (U.S. Coast Guard) Walter Eberle with his wife Agnes Whale Rock Light, a typical cast-iron “spark plug” type lighthouse, was constructed at the entrance to the west passage of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay in 1882 to help mariners past a treacherous reef. Isolated Whale Rock was not a desirable location for keepers, and 16 different men served as head keeper between 1...

The area in Southern California known as San Pedro saw Spanish use dating back to the 1540s. Once a separate township, it’s now part of Los Angeles. After the Mexican-American War, San Pedro’s harbor was expanded and improved. Congress appropriated funds for a lighthouse at Point Fermin, San Pedro’s southernmost point, in 1854. The light began service on December 15, 1874. Point Fermin Lighthouse,...

Mukilteo Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont On the east side of Washington’s Puget Sound, Mukilteo grew as a port in the late 1800s, with salmon canning and lumber as leading industries. Funds were appropriated by Congress for a lighthouse at Mukilteo in 1903, and construction began in 1905. A 30-foot tower was built, attached to a fog signal building, with two large, separate dwellings...

Old Point Loma Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Congress authorized lighthouses at several California locations in 1850, including San Diego. Construction began in 1854 on a lighthouse on a high bluff at the end of Point Loma, more than 400 feet above the sea. The lighthouse began service in November 1855. Its active life was fairly short, as it turned out. The great height of the li...

Cornelia Cesari Maine’s Baker Island is about four miles southeast of the much larger Mount Desert Island. A lighthouse was established on the highest point of the island in 1828. The early history of the light station is very much tied into the history of the family of William and Hannah Gilley. The Gilleys had taken possession of the island in the early 1800s, and William was appointed as...