She bought an abandoned US lighthouse. Now you can too

30.05.2023, 19:59 bbc.com

Sheila Consaul, a Washington, DC-based communications executive, was in the market for a summer home when she came across a rare find.

A historic, white and red, lakefront property located just off the shores of Lake Erie and surrounded by glittering water on all sides. Its name? The Fairport Harbor West lighthouse.

In 2011, Ms Consaul won the light station in a government auction with a bid of about $71,000 (£57,494).

Now the US government hopes yet more people will follow in her footsteps to purchase and restore these once-mighty sentinels before they slowly deteriorate into the coast.

For centuries, lighthouses have been a fixture of America's coastline, their beacons guiding mariners to safer shores. But modern day advances in GPS technology and navigation have reduced many watchtowers to historic attractions, while others have been neglected or abandoned.

In 2000, Congress passed the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act which provided a way to transfer ownership of decommissioned historic light stations to new keepers, like Ms Consaul.

More than 150 lighthouses have found new keepers since the programme began, the agency said.

"Lighthouse Season" begins in June and this year the US General Services Administration said a record number of lighthouses will be available to the public through an online bidding process and auction.

The government said it will offer to transfer ownership of six lighthouses to state and local government agencies, non-profits and community groups at no cost if they are willing to preserve the historic buildings.

But if no organisation comes forward to purchase the properties, they will be auctioned off online to the public.

Four lighthouses will go up for public auction, the agency said, including the Cleveland Harbor West Pierhead light which famously freezes to resemble an ice castle during Ohio's frigid winters.

After the US Coast Guard decommissioned the Fairport Harbor West watchtower in the 1940s, the structure sat empty for more than 70 years until Ms Consaul purchased it.

"It took three years of an auction process to finally secure," she says. "It is amazingly calm and serene and pretty much in the middle of the lake with 360 degree views of the water. At night you can see stars everywhere."

But she cautioned, as with any renovation project, buying the near-century-old lighthouse was just the beginning.

"I've been renovating it pretty much ever since," she says, adding she's lost track of how much she's spent on restoring the two-storey lighthouse, which spans 3,000 sq ft (278 sq m), over the years.

The Fairport Harbor West lighthouse is located on Lake Erie about 20 miles east of Cleveland, Ohio at the mouth of the Grand River. Ms Consaul said she's kept the original spiral iron staircase and re-purposed a massive foghorn into a table, but other upgrades have taken years to get right.

The lighthouse was off grid and had no toilets, running water, electricity. It also does not have its own dock, so Ms Consaul said she often has to carry supplies - including her groceries - down the narrow pathway in a backpack.

Literature has long idolised the lifestyle of the solitary lighthouse keeper, but Ms Consaul said she wanted the Fairport Harbor West lighthouse to also be a beacon for the community once again.

"When the Coast Guard owned it, for all that time they never had people come in," she says. "I have offered tours from the beginning and I hold an open house every year around the lighthouse's birthday."

With the next celebration just weeks away, Ms Consaul says she's looking forward to sharing her own piece of America's historic maritime history with her community and friends.