Summer 2020 Restoration Update

Another Historic Summer of Restoration Work on Greens Ledge Lighthouse!

Join Us To Help Complete The Historic Restoration!

Thanks to our passionate community of generous donors and volunteers, Greens Ledge Lighthouse continues to undergo a historic restoration, the most significant in its nearly 120 year history.

Funded entirely by private donations - both large and small - and made possible by the support and the contribution of time and services from many individuals and businesses within our community, the challenging but rewarding restoration work has made tremendous progress over the past year.

After two years of work addressing the urgent structural deficiencies in the foundation of the lighthouse, work over the past year has focused on remedying decades of deferred maintenance to the exterior and interior of the lighthouse.

Before we began, Greens Ledge was listed in 'Deteriorated' condition by the National Register of Historic Places, just one demarcation above 'Ruins'. Many identical “sparkplug design” lighthouses built during the same era, and facing similar nautical conditions, have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair.

With gaping holes in the cast iron foundation and cracks in the brick and concrete structural elements, we knew it was a race against time and the community has rallied around the restoration effort since we began fundraising in 2017 and the finish line is now within site with a targeted completion date of 2021.

This summer, scaffolding was constructed around Greens Ledge to facilitate the extensive repair and restoration work needed on the upper tower, which included the application of an ultra-durable industrial-grade PSX paint coating system and the installation of new windows. Work was completed from April through August by our amazing paint and carpentry crew - Shielding Media - out of West Hartford, Connecticut.

As the scaffolding surrounding Greens Ledge Lighthouse came down one recent August morning, the most recognizable and vibrant feature of the $1.8 million restoration was unveiled.

The top white portion of the light now shines almost as bright as the white beacon itself. The selection of 'Lighthouse Red' for the lower half is consistent with the historic red shading of the lighthouse in the early 1900s, replacing the rust-oleum brown the U.S. Coast Guard had used for maintenance-minimization purposes for the last several decades.

The new windows - eight brass porthole windows and nine rectangular stainless steel windows - allow fresh breezes to course through the structure for the first time in decades. Extensive metal repair work and custom fabrication was needed to facilitate the installation.

Designed and manufactured by Cornell Carr of Monroe, CT, a noted manufacturer of windows and doors for the U.S. Navy, the custom windows are literally “aircraft carrier grade” materials that can withstand the worst hurricanes and storm surges and last the next 120 years.

As the critically needed structural repairs and deferred maintenance projects are completed, we have moved into the next phase of the project which we call “The Next 100 Years Vision" of Greens Ledge Lighthouse.

This next phase is the true "historical restoration" initiative and includes the beautification of interior and exterior of the lighthouse and revives the Lighthouse into a functional community asset, breaking the “restore-neglect cycle” common to other restoration projects.

This summer, we completed the interior lead paint remediation, enabling us to begin the historic restoration of the living quarters of the lighthouse which was occupied and utilized by Lighthouse Keepers for seventy years from 1902 through the Light's automation in 1972.

Work on the interior and exterior will continue into the Autumn and early Winter. Noreast Marine out of Boston will begin the restoration work to the power and plumbing systems this month, reestablishing the basic essential facilities that enabled some of the earliest examples of truly "off-the-grid" living. These systems - which were historically powered by coal and oil - will get a much-needed "green" upgrade to renewable energy sources.

Also this Autumn, we will begin work on our upgraded boat landing which will help facilitate safe access to the restored lighthouse. G&C Marine out of South Norwalk, Goncalves & Alves out of Easton, and Blue Flame Fabrication out of Norwalk continue to lead the efforts on that front.

We hope to become a “Beacon” of Long Island Sound preservation and education. In addition to hosting state-of-the-art weather and water monitoring equipment through a potential partnership with UConn's MYSound program, we plan to make Greens Ledge available for public educational tours on select days.

We are getting closer to our initial fundraising goal of $2 million, and hope you will consider joining us in this historic restoration effort - if you have not already - so that our ambitious restoration and programming goals can be accomplished. Also, stay tuned for updates on our upcoming annual Lighthouse Run fundraising event in late September!