Episode 87 - Avery Point Lighthouse

0:00 84? No, 87. Oh my gosh, 87. Hi everybody, I'm Emily. And I'm Vince. And this is The Lighthouse Lowdown. I missed. Just seeing that I forgot to look up how to pronounce something. But, you know, I'm only barely over the wheel to live today, so I think. Hi, everybody. It's Wednesday? Tuesday. Tuesday. It's a rough week so far. Happy to be here with you. And you know what makes it worse? I don't have a history, Bowie. No, Bowie, that's all right. No, Bowie, no problem.

0:44 But we did get some more reviews as a result of our bid in our Chris Point episode. So thank you to all of you who left a review. for our podcast, all positive. And none of that was on our part by manipulation. That's nice. Well, I mean, it was, but. Well, I mean, we asked for reviews. If they happen to be all positive, that's great. I think we asked for five -star reviews. That's where I think the manipulation came in. Somebody's got to throw in a four -star so that it's not suspicious. Yeah, they're like, they're paying people for reviews. Except we're not. Since we have some reviews that were left, then Vince has got to start getting work on some merch.

1:30 I say it every time. And then we'll do a giveaway of maybe like a t -shirt or a hat or something. Yep. Okay. Good. It's in the works, everybody. Get ready. Fall is here, so it could be a, we could do a hoodie maybe. We'll see. Oh, I thought you were going to say like fall themed. I'd be down for, hey, I'm down for whatever. So in true Emily fashion, we're going to no history buoy and it's a tiny episode today. A short episode. A short episode. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that back. We love those. That's what I called it. Our lighthouse today was one of the later towers built in the U .S. but has a unique design going on. Unique. Unique. A little bit of Latin and dancer coming out of there. This is why I didn't look up how to pronounce it. But we're going to Connecticut, the town. It's like Groton.

2:25 How do you spell it? G -R -O -T -O -N. So it could be like a lot of stuff. Groton. Groton. Groton. Groton. Groton. Should we look it up, you think? I don't know. Here, hold on. Hold, please. I can't change. Let's say Groton. Okay, yeah. I mean, I never have to say it again. So it's not that it's, it's not that I'm messing it up. It's just that the world, that our listeners won't know the answer. And they'll still look it up themselves. Anyway, is this our first Connecticut lighthouse? I can't remember. We have to pull up the map. I feel like, genius. Why didn't I look at that? Wait. Yeah. For those of you who don't know, while we look at this, if you go to thelighthouselowdown .com. You're going to see a map under, is it resources? Episode map.

3:16 Episode map, of course, which shows a physical map. And then you can click on locations, zoom in, zoom out, and actually see what episode is recorded for that location. And the answer is that, yes, this is our first Connecticut lighthouse. Good job, everybody. Nice. Oh, I like it. Another map. So we got a map pulled up showing Connecticut. We're right across from Montauk Point Lighthouse. We know this area. Long Island. Over on the right. Yeah, just inside the Connecticut line there.

3:57 Cape Cod. We're looking at Avery Point where that little thing, this little point is Avery Point. Very nice. Avery Point was named after an early settler, Captain James Avery, which the reason why I only just now realized why that's familiar to me is because all the jewelry I got in high school was from James Avery, the brand. His name was also James? It was just the brand name. But yes, Captain James Avery. Oh, must be the same person. I hope that was right. And that wasn't just like the sub cons, just... part of my brain coming out and being like, Avery, it must be James. I don't know. I'm pretty sure that's right. But he had 73 acres, like this plot of land. And when he passed away, that was given to a wealthy industrialist, Morton Plant.

4:51 Okay. And he died in 1918. So it wasn't until 1942 that the land was sold to the state of Connecticut, which gave it to the Coast Guard to use. And in the same year, they built the United States Coast Guard Training Center, which was there until 1967. So when they built this training center, they wanted a lighthouse to mark it. And also it was like on a point and it's right at the mouth of the Thames River. I'm assuming it's the same as the one in England. Yeah. Thames. And faces a tiny island called Pine Island, which you can see on our... Little map that we have pulled up. But also the lighthouse was a symbol of the Coast Guard's light keeping duties, which by that point were dwindling. Yeah. I mean, they had taken over in 39, but so it wasn't that long after that they were like, oh, let's build a lighthouse to commemorate the fact that we are also lighthouse keepers. Did they use the lighthouse that they erected for training purposes, perhaps?

5:51 Maybe. It doesn't say anything about that. There wasn't much on the life of the lighthouse while it was. in the Coast Guard Training Center. Oh, okay. Yeah. But it was also kind of like a memorial for light keepers. And according to the Avery Point Lighthouse Society, it was also built, quote, to fulfill a contingency of the quit claim deed, so for this land, for receiving the property from the state of Connecticut and was the last lighthouse built in the state of Connecticut. So we have our last lighthouse and the first one that we cover in Connecticut. So nice little bookend there. Nice. So there was something in the deed that said that there had to be a lighthouse built. I don't know. Just interesting. While Avery Point Lighthouse was completed in 1943, worries about drawing in enemies from the water in World War II meant that it wasn't lit until May 2nd, 1944. And so the tower actually had, I think because it was so late, it had an unusual light characteristic, which was a cluster of eight 200 -watt bulbs. So like nothing crazy.

6:56 Very low candle power. It's like a very symbolic lighthouse. Yeah, it's more just for show than for actual utility. The light list mentions that the number of bulbs vary depending on your angle of approach, which really points out that it's not that powerful if you can pick out light bulbs from each other, I think. It was originally fixed to white and changed to a green flash every four seconds in 1960. How did they do that if there were individual bulbs? Probably electric current. In the 60s. They didn't have LEDs yet, so they didn't have color -changing lights. No, but we had colored panels long before we had light bulbs.

7:39 Oh, it was just green. It wasn't like changing. No, no, flashing. Never mind. How do they do that? I see now what you're saying. I thought you were saying like, yeah, in the 60s, they had color changing bulbs, which I'm not familiar with that. Yeah. No, none of that extra stuff. This looks militant, which I guess kind of makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So Coast Guard. Avery Point is 41 feet tall and it's an octagonal tower made of concrete bricks. Same diameter from top to bottom until we hit the lantern room, which of course is a little smaller. And this lantern room is also octagonal. Decorative and made from wood. That's unique. Yeah, the lantern gallery was made from concrete and lined with 32 Italian marble balusters. Balusters? Baluster? The balusters?

8:36 What is it? Ballast? Like a baluster? B -A... Balusters. Now you got me all tripped up. You know there's the word banister. Yeah, yeah. It's attached to that. Those are the long ones that go from top to bottom. Now I want to look this up. Like the black behind you. Yeah. On the staircase. Yeah. Staircase rods. Balusters. B -A -L -U -S -T -E -R -S. Wait. Wait. No. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Those are still, like Home Depot has those. Yep. Ballister. Ballister? Well, I just realized. Oh, hold on. Oh, no. Ballisters. Ballisters.

9:22 B -A -L -U -H -S -T -R -Z. Sorry, everyone. I am not on top of everything all the time. I didn't say it right either, did I? No, you did. Ballisters. From the hip. Like a banister. Huh? Like banister, which is the... So these balusters were imported from Italy in 1900. So they were like this nice little decorative addition, try and spice it up a little. Not much utility, but it's a looker. And that's what I have a picture pulled up of. This picture is from when it was starting to get a little more decrepit. Concrete blocks and stuff. I really slowed you down in the description of this lighthouse. But it's a recap. So it's octagonal tower, 88 feet? 41 feet. All right.

10:13 We're both tired. And it's the same diameter from the bottom to the top rail, which is brick. And then it turns into marble, they said, for the balusters. It's all concrete. The balusters are marble. Man, it looks like brick. Yeah, they're concrete bricks. And then the lantern room itself is wood. Yeah, and wood. You said it's decorative. So does that mean it's well -decorated or ornate? Yeah, I mean, look at it. Look at arched windows. We got some bar stuff going on here. Octagonal cupola. We love it. Yeah, the cupola's always been metal, though. Like, I've never heard of a wood... I don't know if the cupola is wood.

11:02 Well, okay. The lantern room. I've never heard of a wooden lantern room. Oh. Have I? Maybe not. Yeah, I guess that's strange. So, pretty cool. This looks like a home project. Oh. No, no. I mean, like, with a lot of honor. I mean, like, you could have this. How did you say that? Like, you could put this in your backyard. Yeah, if you're rich. Yeah, rich, rich. Like, two riches. Anyways. That's crazy. I did read that it has two windows facing south and one window facing every other direction. Kind of fun. Suspect. Suspect. It's just facing the water. A little extra protect. So, yeah, that is the extent of what I have for when it was under the Coast Guard training center. Yes, just a couple years. Yeah, I mean, I guess they wouldn't be like, here's what we did with the lighthouse. It's just probably like... Just happenstance. Yeah, they just do whatever they do. And it was deactivated in 1967 when the training center was moved from Avery Point to Governor's Island in New York City, which I think we talked about Governor's Island.

12:07 Yes. In our Statue of Liberty episode. We did. Everybody go check it out. It was a lighthouse. It was a terrible lighthouse. Probably one of the worst, but a lot more life left in it for other purposes. You have to say about that. 1969. Two years later, the land was returned at no cost to the state of Connecticut. So Coast Guard finished with it and handed it back off. And the lighthouse was marked a building used at the University of Connecticut at Avery Point, which... Of course. Yeah. Local. So they marked it, I think it was building, it was either 14 or building 41. And they used that as a physics laboratory and air sampling station. I'm like, so cool. Can you imagine if you went to college and they were like, oh yeah, the physics lab is in the lighthouse. I'd be like, excuse me.

13:00 Yeah, they're probably dropping shit in there. Yeah. Acid. I was thinking like gravity. Like they have a high point to drop things from. Maybe a pendulum could be going on. Air sampling so they can go up there and be like. Fourth grade physics? What's the air? They drop stuff from high up and there's a pendulum. 1969, we landed on the moon, supposedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. I'm really reaching here. Air sampling lab, huh? Yeah. And this is a picture I pulled up. This woman is doing maintenance on their air sampling.

13:42 But this is a more modern picture. This is after renovation and everything. So it looks pretty good. We're going to be chasing that. Very cool. By 1997, because during that time, I don't think anybody was in charge of upkeep. So 1997, the university labeled the lighthouse as in dangerously poor condition. And by 1999, the American Lighthouse Foundation and the newly formed Avery Point Lighthouse Society began fundraising for the restoration to bring it back to its future glory. And the university gave them permission to work on it. So they still... owned it but we're like sure fix it up oh that's nice we're cool with it so i pulled up a photo of what it used to look like this is uh from my understanding there used to be i mean the lantern room was still up there it ain't got no time oh and then they took it off okay because wait let me this let me i'm getting too far into my notes i just want to like The assessment was estimated to be $25 ,000.

14:47 So just like looking at it and being like, here's what we have to do with it. Dang. And then the restoration was going to be at the high end $200 ,000 from what they were estimating. An engineering firm did the study, which ended up being worth an estimated $40 ,000 totally for free just to help out. And for the restoration, the funds that were raised were like... Raised by selling 2 ,000 personalized bricks that would make up the walkway of the lighthouse. Which I know St. Augustine does that as well, right? I think so. I think it's a great idea because people, it's hard sometimes for people to donate because it's like your money goes into the ether and you're like, are you using it? Well, yeah. Sometimes when it's so expensive, these big projects, it feels like you can't contribute. And of course, that's actually... The best contributions are crowdsourced from a bunch of enthusiasts. I actually have a brick with my name on it somewhere. What are you talking about? I do. Where? Hayes, Kansas.

15:50 Oh, my gosh. With your family or just you? My family, but my name has my own brick. Oh, my gosh. On the public library on the left side if you're so inclined to go find it. Why didn't you show me that when we first started dating? That would have gotten you a lot of extra points. I would have been like, you're famous. i'll keep that in mind next time we're in haze we'll make a stop there's also um i'm sure there's many of them but there is a statue of liberty nearby that it's about eight feet tall anyways back to connecticut back to back to emily in connecticut thank you vince Pretend we're not sitting across from each other, three feet away. Like we're in a news channel. And we'll go back to Emily covering Connecticut lighthouses. All I was saying is that I am much more likely to donate when it's like, I could go to the lighthouse in the future and be like, oh my gosh, here's a brick with my name on it. Yep. And you know, everyone likes to get something for what they put in.

16:56 Yeah. Even if it's just like a, I don't know, a sticker. I'd be like, cool. Like a sticker that says I donated. I would be like, hell yeah. Well, like the USLHS passport system that we adore so much. Like you donate, what is it, $2? And then you get a stamp. I'm a different member level this year because I wanted a different patch. So I'm a keeper, I believe. You're renewed? I need to renew. I forgot. Is it time? It was a long time ago. Everybody, renew your passports. No, well, not the passport. I forget. I'm selling them short. But they give you a patch. The membership for the USLHS. Sorry. Which level did you do? Was it Prism? No, no, no. That's above where I'm at. I'm Keeper now. Okay. Last year I was the first one. I have it somewhere. Anyways, these patches, I'll have to do something with them at some point. I really want to do Prism.

17:49 I wanted like a field jacket with the patches on it. Like you were talking about a long time ago. Long time ago. Never came to fruition. Anyways. We're really off topic. Okay, sorry. I just said patches aren't fun. Yeah, personalized bricks, and that's how we got there. Then the concrete blocks in the lighthouse, as you can see, are misshapen. And it's because they had high sand content. So over time, they had started to crumble. So these were addressed first. So the first thing they did was replace the entire outer layer completely. And make new concrete blocks with custom molds so that they perfectly match the original bricks.

18:30 Yeah. That's extra. And they strengthened the inside with steel and cement. So they left the ones on the inside. But obviously with the sea, air and everything, the outside ones were a lot more affected. Huh. I've never heard of that process. Yeah. I'd like to know what a custom mold looks like for concrete blocks. Well, I know. Um, if you look up like a custom home, uh, fireplace, like a stone, like my dad's, that one, for example, that that's all concrete. And so each one of those was shaped by hand, um, after a form was used. Yeah. So I assume they could make a general form and then they like make it look rugged with their hands. Okay. Yeah.

19:11 So lightweight concrete, cause it's not structural this way or on the lighthouse. I'm not sure. It might be a little heavier, but pretty cool. Something that'll last. It's a lot of effort that went into that. Yeah. So this is what I was about to run away with. But the lantern room was deemed too damaged to repair. So instead, they lifted it by crane off of the lighthouse and transported it to West Mystic Wooden Boat Building Company, which is owned by a former lighthouse keeper and at the time, an English professor at the University of Connecticut. Oh my gosh. So we had like a very focused connection to this lighthouse. Can you say that again? Wood building? West Mystic Wooden Boat Building Company.

19:56 My gosh. So I'm assuming they make boats, but I guess I didn't look too deep into it. That's a mouthful of a website. Yeah. WMWBBC. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So anyway, he was invested and thus he did it completely for free. Oh, nice. Yeah. Rebuilt the... lantern room using the old one as a template. That's really cool. Yeah. And did it all for free. So the new lantern room was lowered onto the tower in 2005 and the inside had to be completely redone. Like the inside of the tower, they needed new wiring, custom doors and windows, paint, cosmetics, all that stuff. Very fancy. Yeah. So it's still on a university.

20:36 Yes. And I just pulled up a photo of the, I think it was 2009 or something. Someone took these pictures. Beautiful. So very nice. You can see the red brick walkway that has people's names on it that donated to the restoration. Shout out to those people. Yeah, it's very pretty. I like the colors a lot. It's like natural, but not just not plain. It's really nice. Honestly, this it's been put into my head, but it really looks like a setting of a university. It does look like a university lighthouse. It's like. When old universities have towers built to the side, I get that same vibe. So it's interesting that it wasn't built originally for a university, but it does have those. Well, and Emily and I both went to University of Kansas, which has a tower called the Campanile, whatever you want to call it. It's a French word, I think. Anyways, it looks a lot like a lighthouse. Fresnel, Fresnel, Fresnel. Yes. Fresnel. And it's made of limestone.

21:36 Most of the... properties of the university of kansas are limestone um so that's probably what we're seeing here it's a lot of it's very much a limestone color it's cute yeah it's nice right on the water yeah and a lot of this the work that they did people either gave them discounts or gave them or did it for free so i'm where a normal restoration in which you basically rebuild the entire lighthouse would be millions of dollars these days i think this one was 500 000 At the end of everything. So still a lot, but probably like a third of what it would have cost. Yeah. If people weren't like pouring everything they had. There's so much money involved. I know.

22:19 500 ,000. But if you try and think really hard about the past numbers we've heard for lighthouse restorations, it's not that bad. It's actually great. The question is like, just from my curiosity, let's say you wanted to build a 40. Foot tall? Yeah, 41. 41 foot tall. Let's call it 40. Okay. Let's call it 40. Sure. A 40 foot tall lighthouse. Yeah. Like made out of brick or steel and concrete. And yeah, like, you know, the modern construction with a wood lantern room and potentially cupola. If you're like, how much is it going to cost me? I was like, uh, half a million dollars sounds like too much, but I'm wrong. Clearly. It's a four -story tower, okay? You're wrong. I am wrong.

23:13 If anyone out there wants to provide us a quote to build that lighthouse, please do. That'd be fun to share, actually. It actually would be. Even if you want to remain anonymous. You work in an engineering firm, so actually you'd have a pretty good idea of how to estimate something like that. Talk to people and be like, hey, here's the blueprints for this lighthouse. What would you build this for? That'd be hilarious. Price it up. Price it right up. Got to prove how good the discounts were on this construction. They're going to be like, it was going to be $5 million. Actually, it's just $500 ,000. It's easy. But they completed it and relit as a private aid.

23:54 Private aid to Navigation. To Navigation, October 15, 2006. That's crazy. Yes. It's awesome. So we still have a green flashing light, but now it's a solar -powered LED. Oh, I have a picture. Very nice. You can see the university's greenhouse and all kinds of fun stuff. That's cool. It's still being cared and loved today. The grounds are open to the public, so you can just go check this out whenever you want, but the lighthouse cannot be climbed or entered because it's private. Travesty. Got to save it for those physics tests. The university owns it? Yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty sure. I wonder if they use it for anything on an annual basis. If they decorate it or. Oh, I did see some Christmas decorations. I saw Santa visited and played a saxophone. Of course he did. Santas that go to lighthouses are always like the outskirt Santas. That's a very artistic Santa. Yeah. Remember the. Well, Christmas is kind of coming up. Do you remember the Flying Santa episode? Yes. Super fun. Yeah, and then I started doing Christmas at Lighthouses. Today, this year is going to be our third installment of that. So buckle up. Maybe we'll see this lighthouse at every point. Yeah, last one. Did we talk about St. Augustine? Mm -hmm. Nice. That might have even been the first one. Oh, the first Christmas

25:25 at Lighthouses. Yeah, we talked about all of their... There are Christmas trees you can walk around. Yeah, the tree inside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. But yeah, that's it. Avery Point Lighthouse. Got it all covered. A lot of people, even though it's newer, a lot of people love this lighthouse because it's unique in its appearance. I wonder if it's the only lighthouse that is on university grounds. I doubt it. I feel like... I feel like that'd be hard to research because you know how AI pops up and it's like, here's what I found. It's like, you just pieced together words. I'll use that as the excuse for why you didn't laugh at my joke. Yeah, I was busy yawning. It's not personal. Avery Point Lighthouse, the first one that popped up. Boom, confirmed. Lots of posts about it. Avery Point. Milne. Berg Lighthouse, also known as Port Potchartrain. Why did I do this to myself? Anyway, from my slight scrolling, it seems to be one of the few, at the very least, if not the only one. That's good. At least there's more than one. We have lighthouses on golf courses, lighthouses on universities. What's next? What could be coming next? And that's how we'll keep you guys looped into the Lighthouse Lowdown.

26:52 And you'll catch us next time. What could be coming next? And the answer to that is merch, apparently. Merch. So keep an eye out for that. And check out our website, thelighthouselowdown .com, where you can leave a review or watch our videos, listen to our podcasts, and you can check out our episode map. Yeah. In this episode, so... We're hoping that we're going to catch you next time on The Lighthouse. Thanks for coming.