Fairport Harbor Light

Fairport Harbor Light

Fairport Harbor Light and Marine Museum
Location	129 2nd Street Fairport Harbor, Ohio United States
Coordinates	41°45′25.07″N 81°16′38.33″W / 41.7569639°N 81.2773139°W / 41.7569639; -81.2773139
Tower
Constructed	1871
Foundation	Dressed Stone, Timber/Piling
Construction	Sandstone
Height	60 feet (18 m)
Shape	Conical
Heritage	Listed on the NRHP
Light
First lit	1871 (1871)
Deactivated	1925
Lens	3rd order Fresnel
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Official name	Fairport Marine Museum
Designated	November 5, 1971
Part of	Light Stations of Ohio MPS
Reference no.	71000642[1]

The Fairport Harbor Light, also known as the Grand River Light, is a lighthouse located on Lake Erie in the village of Fairport Harbor, Ohio. The lighthouse was built in 1871 and has a 60-foot tower with a detached keeper's house. The light was decommissioned in 1925, replaced by the Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Light.

At one time the Coast Guard considered using the keeper's house to house their personnel and demolish the tower but a letter writing campaign by local residents prevented it from happening. In 1945 the Coast Guard turned over ownership of the light to the town.

The tower is open to the public and the keeper's house currently serves as the Fairport Harbor Marine Museum and Lighthouse (the first of its kind in the country), operated by the Fairport Harbor Historical Society. Visitors can climb the lighthouse for a view of the harbor. Founded in 1945, the museum features exhibits about the history of the lighthouse and its keepers, a Fresnel lens, lifesaving equipment, life on the Great Lakes, ship models and maritime artifacts. There is a gift shop. The former pilothouse from the Great Lakes carrier the Frontenac is attached to the museum's building. The museum is open seasonally, and is located at 129 Second Street. The lighthouse and museum are alleged to be haunted by a ghost cat and was featured on an episode of My Ghost Story on The Biography Channel in 2011.^[2]

Location

The Grand River (Fairport Harbor) Light is located at the intersection of Second and High Streets in the village of Fairport Harbor.

History

The site of the village of Fairport Harbor was first deeded to settlers by the Connecticut Land Company in 1798.^[3] In the early 1800s, steamships began plying the waters of Lake Erie with the first, the Walk-in-the-Water, making a stop at Fairport Harbor in summer 1818 to disembark ten passengers using a tender due to the unimproved nature of the harbor.^[4] From May to June 1823, the steamship Superior had regular cargo and passenger service to Fairport, in addition to several schooners. The increase in ship traffic prompted residents of Fairport to begin petitioning the federal government for funding to improve the harbor, a need that was reinforced when the steamship Pioneer later ran aground in the Fairport harbor on October 1825.^[5] The U.S. Representative Elisha Whittlesey assisted in securing funding by debating the matter in Congress, and appropriation bills in 1824 and 1825 provided funding of $8,000 and of $1,000 for, respectively, the construction of a lighthouse and a pier "at the mouth of the Grand River."^[6][7][8]

First lighthouse

On March 26, 1825, a request for proposals was placed in a local newspaper for "building a Light-House and Dwelling House, at the mouth of the Grand River" by the customs collector in Cleveland.^[9] The contract for the construction was signed with local builder Johnathan Goldsmith with a completion data of "on or before" October 10, 1826.^[10] The completed lighthouse was made of whitewashed brick and was 56 feet (17 m) tall with a focal height of approximately 90 feet (30 m) above the lake.^[3] The total cost for the lighthouse and keeper's house was $5,032.41.^[10] Within ten years of its construction, the settling of the lighthouse tower required repairs to the foundation.^[11] In letters from U.S. Representative Joshua Reed Giddings in 1841, Goldsmith was also noted as being unsuccessful at petitioning for the position of lighthouse keeper at the lighthouse he built due to the Congressman's stance on patronage jobs.^[11]

By 1844, the piers in the harbor were extended to 480 yards (440 m) allowing vessels with a draft of 12 feet (3.7 m) to dock.^[12] Further enhancements to port infrastructure at Fairport were held up, after U.S. President James K. Polk exercised a presidential veto over the perceived unconstitutionality of the use of public funds on internal improvements such as harbors focused on domestic, maritime trade where the majority of which were on the Great Lakes. Public backlash over the decision lead to the Chicago River and Harbor Convention of 1847 made up of 2,300 delegates in support of federal funding—one delegate who attended was the first keeper of the Fairport Harbor Light, Samuel Butler.^[12]

Construction and service

In 1868, inspectors from the United States Lighthouse Board found the lighthouse and keeper's house to be in poor condition and recommended that they be replacement. Congress appropriated $30,000 for the construction of a replacement lighthouse on March 3, 1869.^[13] Temporary repairs were made to the tower and keeper's house to keep serviceable through the winter in 1869, while a temporary lighthouse tower was also built to operate during the removal of the original tower and was lit on December 10.^[14] Construction began on the new lighthouse on April 4, 1870, starting with a new foundation to prevent a recurrence of the problems that plagued its predecessor.

Marine museum

See also

• List of maritime museums in the United States

References

1. "Ohio SP Fairport Marine Museum". National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Program Records. National Archives and Records Administration. NAID 71989611. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
2. Lessons from Beyond. My Ghost Story. October 22, 2011. The Biography Channel.
3. Williams Brothers 1878, p. 219.
4. Fairport Harbor Bicentennial Committee 1976, p. 40.
5. Lupold 1981, p. 93.
6. May 26, 1824, ch. 179, 4 Stat. 61.
7. March 3, 1825, ch. 63, 4 Stat. 134.
8. Lupold 1981, p. 94.
9. Walworth, A. W. (March 26, 1825) [February 25, 1825]. "Proposals". Painesville Telegraph.
10. Fairport Harbor Bicentennial Committee 1976, p. 68.
11. Fairport Harbor Bicentennial Committee 1976, p. 70.
12. Fairport Harbor Bicentennial Committee 1976, p. 41.
13. Mar. 3, 1869, ch. 122, 15 Stat. 305.
14. Fairport Harbor Bicentennial Committee 1976, p. 71.

Sources

• Killinen, Pearl E (April 25, 1971). "Fairport Marine Museum". National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form. National Archives and Records Administration. NAID 71989611. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
• Fairport Harbor Bicentennial Committee (1976). A History of Fairport Harbor. Fairport Harbor, Ohio: Lake Photo Engraving Inc.
• Williams Brothers (1878). A History of Geauga and Lake Counties, Ohio. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co.
• Lupold, Harry Forrest (Summer 1981). "Fairport: The Transformation of a Lake Erie Port, 1812–1870". Inland Seas. 37 (2). Vermilion, Ohio: Great Lakes Historical Society: 90–101. ISSN 0020-1537.

Further reading

• Harrison, Timothy (October 2001). "The Lights and Lost Lights of Fairport Harbor". Lighthouse Digest. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
• Oleszewski, Wes. Great Lakes Lighthouses, American and Canadian: A Comprehensive Directory/Guide to Great Lakes Lighthouses, (Gwinn, Michigan: Avery Color Studios, Inc., 1998) ISBN 0-932212-98-0.
• U.S. Coast Guard. Historically Famous Lighthouses (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1957).
• Wright, Larry and Wright, Patricia. Great Lakes Lighthouses Encyclopedia Hardback (Erin: Boston Mills Press, 2006) ISBN 1-55046-399-3

External links

• Fairport Harbor Marine Museum and Lighthouse
• Anderson, Kraig. Lighthouse Friends
• Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of the United States: Ohio". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Fairport Harbor (Lake Erie) Light (Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society)
• Fairport Harbor Lighthouse (United States Coast Guard)