Volume 3, Issue 6 - June 2025

President's Letter

Dear Friends,

June in Chicago is pure magic.

The lakefront comes alive with the sound of sails flapping, laughter echoing across the harbors, and festivals bringing people together to celebrate all that makes this city vibrant.

Pride Month, Juneteenth, and the official start of summer are just a few of the reasons to get outside, get down to the Lakefront, and take in the awe-inspiring beauty of Chicago.

And if you're not here—plan a trip.

You’ll see what I mean.

This month’s newsletter is packed with stories that reflect the momentum we’re building together.

First, I’m thrilled to share details about our first-ever fundraiser cruise—LIGHT THE WAY: A NIGHT FOR THE CHICAGO HARBOR LIGHTHOUSE on August 7th, National Lighthouse Day.

Thanks to the generosity of the Borgstrom Family and Wendella Boats, we’ll celebrate the Past, Present, and Future of our lighthouse with a cruise, silent auction, and a few surprises. Tickets are on sale now—don’t miss it! See link below!

If you're wondering what’s happening with our NHLPA application, you're not alone. In Still Waiting… and Waiting…, we share a tongue-in-cheek update on our current status with the National Park Service. Spoiler: we're past the 75-day mark and hanging on with hopeful anticipation.

Steve Clements contributes a wonderful piece on The Stirling Bemis Era at the lighthouse, reminding us that every lightkeeper—especially those with dreams—leaves behind a legacy. It’s a testament to what’s possible when passion meets purpose.

This Chicago Harbor Lighthouse and Chicago’s waterfront also gained a new neighbor this month as the New Navy Pier Marina officially opens—congratulations to Randy Podolsky and his partners on a decade-long vision come to life.

Just up the coast, Port Washington Breakwater Lighthouse is wrapped in scaffolding and kicking off preservation work of its own. It’s exciting to see so many lakefront beacons getting the attention they deserve.

Looking ahead, we’re inviting educators to help shape our vision for a “Classroom on the Lakefront.” If you’re passionate about maritime history, environmental science, or creating hands-on learning experiences for kids, we want to hear from you.

And finally, the Save the Lighthouse online store is open! Now’s the perfect time to grab a FOCHL t-shirt and wear your support for the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse proudly this summer.

Thank you for being part of this journey. Your support—whether through a donation, a t-shirt purchase, or just sharing our mission—helps keep the light shining bright for generations to come.

Be Safe and Be Well!

Regards,

Kurt Lentsch

Chief Dreamer and President

LIGHT THE WAY: A NIGHT FOR THE CHICAGO HARBOR LIGHTHOUSE

Aboard the Wendella Cruise – Our First Fundraiser!

On Thursday, August 7th, National Lighthouse Day, the Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse invite you to join us for an unforgettable evening on the water—our first-ever fundraiser cruise in support of restoring and reopening one of Chicago’s most iconic landmarks.

This event would not be possible without the incredibly generous support of Wendella Boats and the Borgstrom Family, who donated the use of their beautiful vessel, Lila, to help us launch this annual tradition.

As Chicago’s original architectural tour, Wendella has been guiding residents and visitors along the Chicago River and lakefront for 90 years. For all those years, the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse, originally built in 1893 and moved to its current location in 1918, has stood as a steadfast beacon just beyond the river’s mouth, watching over generations of Wendella cruises, sailors, tourists, and families alike.

This collaboration is more than symbolic. It’s a shared legacy of protecting, celebrating, and interpreting the story of Chicago’s relationship with the water, from the city’s earliest shipping days to today's skyline and river cruises.

We are thrilled to invite you aboard this special two-hour evening cruise, which includes:

·      Light appetizers

·      A cash bar

·      A special presentation on the lighthouse’s past, present, and bright future

·      A silent auction featuring exclusive merchandise and learn about once-in-a-lifetime naming opportunities

·      A close-up trip past the lighthouse as the sun sets over the city

Tickets are $100 per person — and every dollar raised will go directly toward the preservation and restoration of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse.

This is your chance to be a part of something historic — preserving a piece of Chicago’s past to inspire future generations.

Tickets are limited, so grab yours today and help us “light the way” forward.

Thank you again to the Wendella team and the Borgstrom Family for making this extraordinary night possible.

We can’t wait to see you on board.

Still Waiting… And Waiting…

By your ever-hopeful Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse!

On March 11, 2025, we submitted our NHLPA application to the National Park Service — a beautiful bundle of dreams, drawings, and decades of lighthouse love.

Since then? We’ve entered The Waiting Zone.

We're officially past the 75-day mark, which means someone, somewhere at NPS is hopefully reading our plan and thinking, “Wow, these folks really do know how to restore a 132-year-old cast-iron beauty.”

Meanwhile, we’re refreshing our inboxes, gazing dramatically at the lake, and pretending not to check the mailbox five times a day.

Yes, waiting is hard. But we’re ready. We’ve planned, we're fundraising, partnered, and prepped. Now all we need is one word from the feds:

YES.

Until then, thanks for waiting with us. Keep your fingers crossed and your lighthouse lights on — we’ll be ready the second that letter arrives.

The Stirling Bemis Era at Chicago Harbor Lighthouse: Dreams can Come True!

By: Steve Clements

As shared in last month’s newsletter (1978 Was an Important Year of Change at Chicago Harbor Lighthouse), one significant milestone from that year was the U.S. Coast Guard’s departure from the lighthouse after it was fully automated and no longer required full-time staffing. Upon learning of this change, Chicagoan Stirling Bemis saw a unique opportunity, sparking an ambitious dream for a one-of-a-kind living arrangement.

Below we share two contemporary newspaper pieces detailing Stirling’s remarkable journey and lifestyle. Please excuse the lower quality of the included photographs; these articles and their images come from historical digital archives, when scanning technology was not yet capable of accurately capturing high-quality black-and-white photos from newsprint.

The first piece is an Associated Press story published by the Asbury Park Press on December 16, 1979, a year and a half after Bemis first envisioned his lighthouse-living dream:

Salesman realizes hope of living in lighthouse

(Associated Press)

CHICAGO - For years, Stirling Bemis was in love with a lighthouse off a breakwater near Navy Pier.

He gazed down at the Lake Michigan sentinel from his 23rd floor apartment, cruised by it on his sailboat and dreamed of making the nine-story tower his home.

Now he’s preparing to move in.

A YEAR-AND-a-half ago, Bemis, a salesman for Good Housekeeping Magazine, learned the lighthouse was being automated and the four coast guardsmen assigned there were pulling out.

So he hired a lawyer, and started negotiations that lasted more than nine months. At first, the Coast Guard’s attitude was, “Go away kid,” Bemis, 37, recalled.

Then, Bemis’s lawyer quit, saying there was nothing more he could do and that he would be wasting his money.

“BUT I continued,” Bemis said.

The breakthrough came when he argued that his presence would prevent both deterioration and vandalism at the lighthouse. Two weeks ago he signed a lease with the Coast Guard, but he declined to disclose the terms.

The lighthouse, standing since 1920 and accessible only by boat, rests on a concrete base 28 feet above water level. Inside, a spiral staircase winds its way to the top where a beacon flashes a red light every five seconds and is visible for 23 miles. There are several living areas, a new kitchen, storage rooms and an office.

“DURING THE winter, weather permitting, I’ll be going out there and getting the south room ready for insulating,” said Bemis. “This is where I’ll live at first. There are nine levels from the water level to the lantern deck on top.

“I’ll have to do some insulating for noise, too, from the foghorn,” he said. “It’s 113 decibels and that could be harmful to my hearing. Any improvements I make become Coast Guard property.” Bemis will have no responsibility for, or access to, the foghorn, the light or a radio transmitter. That section will be maintained by the Coast Guard and kept locked.

WHILE HE negotiated for the lighthouse, his friends thought of him as a Chicagoan Don Quixote, chasing a water-bound windmill. “Half of my friends thought it was the best idea they ever heard of. The other half thought I should be fitted for a straitjacket,” Bemis said.

Why live in the cold, military gray atmosphere of an aging, isolated building that bleats loudly to sailors in foul weather? “From there on the lighthouse I’ll get one of the most beautiful views of the city. And I’m a view freak. Besides, I just love that lake,” he said.

By late November or early December of 1979, Bemis had finally signed the lease, turning his longstanding dream into reality. By the spring of 1980, he had officially moved into the lighthouse, experiencing the unique challenges and pleasures previously known only to professional lighthouse keepers. 

Three years later, living his lighthouse dream, Bemis’s life at Chicago Harbor Lighthouse was again highlighted, this time in a Chicago Tribune article dated August 1, 1983, written by Lea Donosky:

2 rooms with a view

STIRLING BEMIS sometimes feels a little like the people in the American Express commercials.

“Everybody knows their names, but not their faces,” he says.

In Bemis’s case, his face, but not his name, is well known to many Chicagoans.

Who is he?

He is a one-man spectator sport for Lake Michigan boaters who pass within a few hundred yards of his house, waving and calling out greetings. For three years, Bemis has lived in the lighthouse east of Navy Pier.

He has become such a familiar figure out on the deck of the nine-story tower, the U.S. Postal Service passes on mail addressed simply to “the man in the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse.” Chicago lockkeepers hand the letters to him on his weekday commute from the lighthouse to his job as an advertising salesman for Good Housekeeping magazine.

A lifelong sailor, Bemis moved into the lighthouse in 1980, after years of casting covetous looks at the 63-year-old structure.

His quest to become one of the most unusual renters in the city began in 1978 when he heard that the tower, like lighthouses all along the country’s coastlines, was being automated to reduce costs to the financially strapped Coast Guard and the four resident guardsmen were being removed. Bemis refuses to reveal the terms or length of the lease that he spent a year and a half trying to convince the Coast Guard to grant him.

VANDALISM and deterioration of the structure, which Coast Guard officials feared would accompany its abandonment, have been cut considerably by the unusual arrangement, said Capt. James Sullivan, Milwaukee station commander of the U.S. Coast Guard group. “It’s been a very desirable alternative to boarding it up and walking away,” Sullivan said. “He’s a good, eager renter.”

By living at the lighthouse, Bemis also is able to assist in alerting the Coast Guard to malfunctions in the light, which beacon vessels to the safety and shelter of Chicago Harbor.

LIFE IN A LIGHTHOUSE also can be hard work. Bemis is continually replacing windows broken by storms. Some days the water is so rough, the only way he can get to work is in a boat he has dubbed his “rubber ducky,” an eight-foot inflatable raft originally designed for World War II commando forces. Mildew is an ever-present problem, and Bemis fights a constant battle against peeling paint that forces him every year to repaint the two rooms he lives in.

And he’s had to get used to the 115-decibel blast of the foghorn.

He does his grocery shopping by docking at Lake Point Tower. “My kingdom … for a trash compactor,” he jokes.

Bemis hopes to begin work soon to insulate one room so he can live at the lighthouse year-round. Without insulation, he’s been forced to move back to land for the coldest three or four months of the year.

Despite the difficulties, Bemis says lighthouse living is everything he dreamed of: a spectacular view of Chicago’s skyline, solitary walks on the 1¼-mile-long breakwater, the sound of waves lapping against the structure as he sleeps, and dinners of perch caught from his pier.

Bemis says he hopes that someday the lighthouse can be opened to the public as a museum. In the meantime, he uses his unusual home to raise money for local charities that auction off dinners cooked and served by Bemis at the lighthouse.

When the lease expires, Bemis hopes it will be renewed.

“I love it here. I can’t imagine living any other way,” he says.

It's unclear exactly how long Stirling Bemis continued to reside at the lighthouse beyond the three years documented here. Few visible signs remain of his time there, aside from additional layers of peeling paint in his former rooms and some graffiti dating from that era. There is also no evidence that he ever undertook his planned insulation project in the south building, known as the fog signal room, whose original walls remain untouched.



At Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse, we deeply admire and share Stirling Bemis’s visionary spirit. We celebrate his dream of opening the lighthouse as a public museum and continue our work to fulfill it. Although research suggests that Bemis passed away at age 52 in West Palm Beach, Florida, his legacy motivates us every day in our mission to preserve, restore, and celebrate this beloved historic landmark.

We Need Your Help!

Did you ever visit Stirling at the lighthouse? If so, we’d love to hear from you, especially if you have photographs, artifacts, or memories from that unique period. Our goal is to create an exhibit at the lighthouse highlighting Stirling’s fascinating and truly distinctive era in the history of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse.

Can you help us bring this vision to life? If you can contribute, please reach out directly to steveclements@savethelighthouse.org. 

Navy Pier Marina Officially Opens: A New Era for the Lakefront

Congratulations to Randy Podolsky and his partners on the long-anticipated opening of Navy Pier Marina. Their ten-year commitment to making this project a reality is nothing short of inspiring. This bold vision and perseverance showcase the power of public-private partnerships in transforming Chicago’s lakefront into a vibrant, accessible, and world-class waterfront.

At the ribbon-cutting event, City of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, Randy and Wendy Podolsky (Navy Pier Marina) Marilynn Gardner (Navy Pier President & CEO) and Israel Idonije (former Chicago Bear player, NPM Partner), and Randy Podolsky stood together—a testament to what can be accomplished when civic leaders, private developers, and passionate advocates join forces.

At Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse, we’re watching from the sidelines—for now. But make no mistake: we’re next up. Randy and his team showed us what’s possible.

Now it’s our turn to Preserve, Restore, and Celebrate the historic Chicago Harbor Lighthouse.

We look forward to working closely with the City of Chicago, Navy Pier, Navy Pier Marina and other partners to light the way for the next chapter in lakefront legacy.

Stay tuned. Game on!

Preservation Work Underway at Port Washington Breakwater Lighthouse

Big things are happening on the lakefront in Port Washington, Wisconsin!

The historic North Breakwater Lighthouse has officially begun its long-awaited preservation project—and the sight is impressive. The lighthouse is now wrapped in a cocoon of protective fabric, designed to contain old paint and hazardous materials during restoration safely. Through the translucent fabric, you can glimpse the complex scaffolding setup surrounding the iconic structure.

This exciting progress follows the announcement on September 17, 2024, that the City of Port Washington was awarded a $2,231,900 grant through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP). The total project is estimated at $2,814,875, marking a significant investment in preserving Great Lakes maritime history.

At Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse, we’re thrilled to see this important preservation work begin. It’s a powerful reminder of what’s possible through public support, strategic partnerships, and persistent vision. We look forward to the day when the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse is similarly wrapped for restoration—another beacon preserved for future generations.

Calling All Educators, Writers, and Creatives: Help Us Build the “Classroom on the Lakefront”

Do you love Chicago history, creative storytelling, or sparking curiosity in young minds?

Are you a teacher, curriculum designer, writer, illustrator, or just someone who believes in the power of education?

The Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse (FOCHL) is launching an exciting initiative, and we need you!

As we move closer to owning the lighthouse and eventually opening it to the public, we’re beginning to lay the foundation for a dynamic educational program.

Our vision is to turn the lighthouse into a “classroom on the lakefront”—a place where kids (and grown-ups!) can learn about maritime history, Great Lakes ecology, architecture, STEAM, navigation, preservation, weather, climate change, and more.

To bring this vision to life, we’re assembling a creative and passionate team to help us imagine what learning at the Lighthouse could look like.

We’re looking for:

• Teachers and Educators to develop curriculum aligned with learning standards
• Creative Writers to craft engaging lesson materials and stories
• Illustrators and Designers to bring visuals to life
• Historians and Storytellers to shape content rooted in Chicago’s maritime legacy

This is a ground-floor opportunity to be part of something truly special—a chance to leave your mark on a historic Chicago icon and make a real difference. Whether you're a classroom teacher, homeschooling parent, museum educator, artist, or writer looking for a meaningful project, we’d love to hear from you.

Join us in creating something lasting, fun, and impactful. Let’s inspire the next generation—right from the base of this remarkable lighthouse on the edge of Lake Michigan.

Interested in being part of the committee? Email us at info@savethelighthouse.org and include “EDUCATION” in the subject line.

The Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse (FOCHL) Online Store is LIVE!

Check out our fun new t-shirt design and pick up some extra pins and stickers to share with your friends and family. The Chicago Harbor Lighthouse Model makes a great holiday gift for your favorite Chicagoan!

All proceeds from the FOCHL Online Store support our mission to Preserve, Restore, and Celebrate the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse.

Visit www.SaveTheLighthouse.org/store today and show your support!

Book a Save The Lighthouse Presentation

If you are part of a group of 25 or more interested in learning more about the history of our lighthouse and our efforts, please contact Steve Clements (steveclements@savethelighthouse.org to discuss the possibility of scheduling a presentation for your group.

These presentations will discuss the Lighthouse’s rich history, present condition, and future plans to celebrate and share with the public, its significance to the legacy of Chicago history. 

Speakers Kurt Lentsch, President, FCHL and Edward Torrez, Preservation Architect, have engaged audiences throughout the city for many months with their thoughtful and inspiring presentations on the CHL.

Volunteer Your Time and Talent

Photo credit: Barry Butler

We would appreciate your help. Volunteer and join us in our mission to save the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse and keep its legacy alive for generations. 

We are a passionate organization dedicated to preserving, restoring, and celebrating the historic Chicago Harbor Lighthouse for future generations. Our mission would not be possible without the help of dedicated volunteers who share our passion and commitment to this iconic landmark.

As a volunteer with Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse, you will have the opportunity to gain valuable experience, meet new people, and make a meaningful impact in preserving a historic Chicago landmark cherished by our city.

If you want to donate your talents and join our team, please visit our volunteer page at savethelighthouse.org/volunteer to learn more.   

We are seeking talented and experienced part-time volunteers to assist us in fundraising (especially grant writing), construction, and community outreach, helping us build and maintain our connections to local and national organizations. 

Some of the talented volunteers, who are building this dream.

If you are part of an organization that has an interest in financially supporting our efforts to Preserve, Restore, and Celebrate the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse, please reach out to Nick Naber (nicknaber@savethelighthouse.org), our treasurer and a member of our fundraising working group.

Your contributions enable us to offset the start-up costs for the Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse and begin the preservation and restoration work that is greatly needed on this historic place... We are very grateful for your generosity.

The Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse is a 501c3 organization

so please make a tax-deductible gift to help us Save the Lighthouse!

www.SaveTheLighthouse.org

41°53'22"N 87°35'26"W

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