| OCR Text |
Show FOR SEVERAL CENTURIES, LIGHTHOUSES ON THE NATION’S COASTLINES, LAKESHORES AND RIVERWAYS GUIDED MARINERS. NOW THE GOVERNMENT IS GIVING AWAY THESE PRECIOUS LANDMARKS. IF YOU QUALIFY, YOU CAN... Own A Part Of Our EORGE BERNARD Shaw oncesaid, I can New London Harbor Light, Conn think of no other edifice 4 The fourth lighthouse built in the Colonies, the New London Harbor Light saw action in both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812) constructed by man as altruistic as a lighthouse They were built only to serve.” Technology has comea long way since shaw’s youth, whenseafarers were guid! by whale-oil fires burning in waterside »wers. Today, global positioning and radar makethe lighthouse largely irrelint. So what's to becomeof our gov rmment’s 300 lighthouses, whose serices often are no longer needed? Rather thansell the structures,the fed eral government has decidedto give them away. Today, through PARADE, the Department oftheInterior and the Coast Guard are announcing the second intallment of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Program. in which 20 of these lighthousesare free to those who Newport News Middle GroundLight, Va. This lighthouse,in one of the world’s busiest harbors, has a three-story keeper’s quarters. 1 aWayearlier this summer to nonprof it groups and local govern- THE NATIONAL HISTORIC ments—exactly the type of in lake good care of them. Six were giv- anizations the Interior LIGHTHOUSE PRESERVATION [-—, PROGRAM ALLOWS Jepartment would like to nthenext 20, \ don’t need to main em asaids to navigation, a) ve used to, and tax an't really afford to intain all of those light payer COMMUNITIES TO PROTECT THE LIGHTHOUSES THAT ONCE KEPT THEIR SHORES SAFE. houses in the way we'd like,” says Interior tary Gale Norton, who oversees the Norton's specific restoration guidelines The new owners also must opentheir lighthouses to the public, which means those with dreamsof a quiet retirement ogram and has the ultimate decision in livyying out lighthouses. “So it made sense to give them to thegreat many people who in a free lighthouse neednot apply ire willing to protect the lighthouses.” \pplicants will have to pass a gruel- Evenwith the strict guidelines and the heavy expenses of restoring alight- etling process to prove they can untain the structures according to house, Nortonsays her agencywasfloodedwithcalls and pledgesof support, akin B Y K ER PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD CUMMINS/CORBI. AT H R Y to love letters, from peopleall over the country duringthefirst round of giveaways. “It’s the setting,” Norton says. Lighthouses are in beautiful waterfront locations. But theinterest is more than that. They capture the spirit of the seafaring adventurers andtapinto the call we all haveinside us to be adventurers,” The National Park Service says public N interest in lighthouses has increased steadily since the 1960s and has bur geonedinthe last few years. “It’s the idea of someone watching over you,bringing yousafely home, that captures the imag ination of so manypeople,” says Sandra Shanklin of Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Lighthousesignited a spark in Shank lin and her husband, Bob, After the cou- WALL ACE PAGE 4» SEPTEMBER 29, 2002 : PARADE MAGAZINE |
