Fascinating Faux Lighthouses

Lighthouses are immensely popular. Of course, those of us who love them know that fact. We are always on the lookout for the latest lighthouse item, be it small or large, real or imagined. One of the bigger items of the imaginative ilk is the faux lighthouse. This is a sentinel, sometimes every bit as convincing as a Coast Guard lighthouse, that someone has built merely for the joy and love of it or for some special purpose.

Many of us have begun collecting images of unofficial lighthouses. We see them everywhere, even inland. I think they'd make a wonderful book, a tome replete with images like those in this blog.

Dimick Lighthouse in Port Townsend, Washington was built as a retreat for the Dimicks. It has its own light, but not bright enough to distract ships and require Coast Guard status. 

Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport features this little lighthouse. It has its own dim light for aesthetic effect. Weddings are popular beneath it. It looks like a mini-Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. Behind it is the George H.W. Bush home, hidden in the trees across the water. I stayed at the resort in October 2016. There was a heavy windstorm that weekend, so taking this photo involved taming my hair and scarf so they weren't in the photo.

Bruce Robie gave me this image of a faux lighthouse at Pier 39 in San Francisco. Check out the sea lions on the outermost float.

I shot this photo in a small town in Oregon along Route 1. It's a real estate office. You can see the decorative light in the lantern.

Nordic Finn Lighthouse Company in  Seabeck, Washington has this faux lighthouse, complete with a rotating beacon and foghorn. The company makes special-order lighthouse replicas and faux lighthouses. Photo by Al Clayton.

Alice D'Amicol took this photo of a faux lighthouse in Florida. I believe it's a beach cottage. Note the AC unit above the red door.

A faux lighthouse greets visitors to Catalina Island, California. Photo on Wunderground by boyntonbeachboy.

This is the Lighthouse Landing Restaurant near the real Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse at Ponce Inlet, Florida. I've dined here, and will attest that it's pretty good fare!

Starbucks is everywhere, even in Cozumel, Mexico. Pierre Bernard took this picture of the Starbuck's lighthouse all lit up at night.

The McDonald's in Port Washington, Wisconsin has its own lighthouse. I haven't been here yet. Someday! Although I love McDonald's food, I try to avoid it. The photo was taken by Kraig Anderson of Lighthouse Friends.

The post office in Sequim, Washington has a very accurate replica of the New Dungeness Lighthouse. I've been a keeper at the real lighthouse several times and have published a book about my experiences there. Click here to see the book.

The Tennessee River Lighthouse was captured on its shore-side perch by Megan O'Brien.

Churches love lighthouses for their symbolism of salvation and guidance. This one is on Zion Baptist Church in Texas. Photo from TripAdvisor.

A motel in Long Beach, Washington has this lighthouse at its entrance. I love that we could drive on the beach here and fly kites. Near the motel is Klipsan Beach where a lifesaving station still stands, though privately owned.

Do you have pictures of your favorite faux lighthouse? I'd love to see them.

Tombstone Territory

Courtesy of Lighthouse Digest

Over my years of collecting information and minutia about lighthouses, I've discovered a number of gravestones with lighthouses on them. The salvation symbolism of a lighthouse, plus its enduring meaning as a refuge from storms and woes and an icon to show the way, make it appealing to families as they decide on a monument for the hereafter. Another reason we see so many lighthouses on gravestones is that people just plain love them.

This is the grave of lightkeeper Abbie Burgess Grant in Spruce Head Cemetery, Maine. The photo was taken when the small lighthouse was placed on her grave in the 1940s. That's Edward Rowe Snow on the right and Wilford Snow on the left. This image is from Jeremy D'Entremont's website about New England lighthouses.

Quite a few of my cemetery images are old slides, so I cannot share them until they are converted to digital files. Having a digital camera and a cell phone is terrific for cemetery sleuthing, as I have the images instantaneously and can share them right away. 

I love walking through cemeteries--I always have--as the serenity, quiet, and storied stone monuments have great stories to tell.

Enjoy this sampling from my files. Many are my photos, and in the very polished stones you can often see my reflection as I snapped the photo. A few are from monument companies or other photographers. Study them, and note the details. They were all lovingly designed.

And please be respectful of these stones and their owners, as you would be if you were walking through a cemetery. I said a quiet thank-you to each one as I took a photo.

Cemetery in Brooklyn, Connecticut

Evergreen Cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida

Bozrah, Connecticut

Photo by Lisa Pisa. 

This image was on Pinterest, with no info attached. It's quite the monument!

Octave Ponsart was a lightkeeper from New England. His daughter Seamond is a digital friend of mine, meaning we communicate on FB and email often but have never met. Someday, Seamond!! You're a true lighthouse kid. Note the service badge on the keeper's grave. It's part of a program to honor lightkeepers. You can learn how to help with that by emailing tim@lhdigest.com. Photo by Scott Coup.

Brooklyn, Connecticut.

Burwen cemetery in the United Kingdom, from Wikimedia Commons

This lighthouse mausoleum is in Memorial Park Cemetery in Michigan. I found it on a way-making website. Apparently, it is a geocaching spot. Neat!

I found this stone in cemetery in Lewes, Delaware. It has the shape of a lighthouse, but it may be a cross.

Barrow Cemetery in the UK has this monument to John Gall, one of the rescued crew of the wrecked ship Forfarshire. If you recall your lighthouse history, Grace Darling helped with this rescue. She was the daughter of the lightkeeper of Longstone Lighthouse. This monument does resemble that lighthouse--the beacon that saved John Gall. Photo by Stephen Middlemiss.

This lovely stone featuring New London's Ledge Lighthouse is in the Mystic Cemetery in Connecticut.

Richardson Memorials in Maine did this nice engraving of Portland Head Lighthouse.

This man was a lightkeeper at old Willapa Lighthouse on the coast of Washington. His lighthouse washed into the sea many years ago. His grave has been moved once, due to erosion of the shoreline at Willapa Bay. The last time I paid him a visit, the sea was encroaching again.

If you have images or directions to lighthouse gravestones, let us know! lightkeeper0803@gmail.com

The Many Moods of Nauset Light

I am besotted with Nauset Beach and its lighthouse! So much history lies there, plus the handsome Nauset Beach Lighthouse. It once stood at Chatham as one of the twin lights. In the 1920s, after the Three Sisters Lighthouses were discontinued, the north tower at Chatham was barged up the shore to Nauset and erected on the beach. Erosion threatened it, and in the 1990s it was moved back to its present location. It's one of Cape Cod's most photographed lighthouses and also famous as the icon of Cape Cod Potato Chips. Not long ago, the company paid to have the lighthouse repainted!

National Park Service Poster

I've been collecting material on Nauset Beach for many years. A part of my collection that most intrigues me is the many ways Nauset Beach Lighthouse has been portrayed by painters. Have a look! What follows are paintings with captions. They might inspire you to do your own Nauset rendering!

Al Woodford did this gentle, rural scene showing the lighthouse in its new location, along with the relocated keeper's house and the oilhouse. But where's the red and white beacon?

Albert Swayhoover viewed Nauset Light in its old location with a sand fence and shrubs. I love the muted tones of the background. If I had to guess, I'd say he did this painting in November. The lighthouse is bit too stubby and fat, though.

This charming view is from Alfred La Banca.

Alice Kaplan did this rendering. Nice colors, and the sunlit side of the tower is a focus for the scene. I can't quite pinpoint this view, however. Is there a road behind the lighthouse and dwelling in their new location? Perhaps as the road curves around the site, we get this view.

The lighthouse seems to float in the clouds in this Annie Flynn painting.

C. Pinkard caught the view from the Nauset Beach parking entrance. I once stood here, as seen in the next photo from about 1998. If you look closely, you'll see lighthouses on my sweatshirt.

This is a similar view from a slightly different angle. It's the work of artist Charles Cooke. The red side of the beacon is spot on!

This is possibly the lighthouse in its old location painted from the beach side. Or it may be a view from the new location. Last time I was there, I did not see much shrubbery around the new location. This is a lovely painting though. Nauset is famous for how the light plays on it throughout the day.

The lighthouse seems to set higher in real life than in this Dana Wheeler painting I'm nitpicking I know. I do like the bright colors.

So many artists choose this view. I hope the house isn't cut off in the original painting. Nice details. The trees in the back look a bit dense. Maybe they've grown up since I was at Nauset last. Painting by Claire Klaum.

Debi Hinshaw chose the same popular view. She has fewer details than other artists.

Here's Dianne Lanning interpretation. Her lantern is a bit small compared to the gallery. I do love the clouds!

George Jacobs did a wash with pen and ink outlines. He didn't forget the beacon. I like it!

Harold Durand White painted the lighthouse in its old location. I visited Mary Daubenspeck when she owned the lighthouse, and it looked just like this as I drove up. I have a postcard of this painting somewhere in my collection.

This is a lovely impressionist rendering by John Glass. It would look perfect on the wall of my front sitting room!

Hall Groat Sr. painted a peek through the woods at the lighthouse. I can imagine this being the view author Edward Rowe Snow might have gotten as he walked Cape Cod in his youth. This painting has such a nice composition.

Tom McCarty did an afternoon rendering, with sunlight bold against the tower and dwelling. His shadows are perfection!

Wouldn't this look nice over a sofa or a console table? Larry Lerew painted this long view of the lighthouse, dwelling and oilhouse, plus some nearby objects. I've always liked pen and ink over a wash. I've done a few myself...but not Nauset Light. Perhaps I'll dig out my watercolors and give it a go.

Colored pencils are always a fun medium. You can do them anywhere. Whenever my daughter does with me on a trip, she takes her pencils and sketches as she rides. Sue Field sketched the back path to Nauset Light.

Sally Rice captured the full sweep of the lighthouse on the cliff and the beach. This appears to have been done when the lighthouse stood at its old location and before eroision had become too troublesome for it.

Lee Gorman Smith zeroed in on just the top of the lighthouse and part of the dwelling. I like the detail on the beacon.

Marguerite Bride's painting is so amazing--great color combo, nice details, and the tower accurate. Those soft touches with the bare or nearly bare branches make this one look so real. I'll take it!!

I so love this one by Joel Popadics. It reminds me of so many visits to Nauset in the late 1980s and early 1990s, before the tower was moved. There are many memories on that piece of cliff, some of it now tumbled over the side. I walked here with Pam Nobli and Mary Daubenspeck. The park rangers at the Cape Cod NS also walked here with me and then took me to the VC to see images of the lighthouses at Nauset. The small gray building below the dwelling was once the gift shop. Some of my books were sold there, and I bought goodies for myself.

Beautiful, stories Nauset Beach and and its lighthouses. My research file on them is fat. Might there be a book in the future?