Need a nice Great Lakes retreat? Bid on an historic lighthouse
CHEBOYGAN, Mich. — You won’t see a “For Sale” sign in the front yard of this on-the-market property, because there is no front yard. There is no back yard, either, and no landscaping, fresh paint, recent kitchen remodel, or cookies baking in the oven to seduce a prospective buyer and close the deal.
The structure for sale just off the coast near here is a 90-year-old lighthouse which has protected Great Lakes mariners and commercial shipping from a treacherous reef that sits well out into the wide channel that connects Lake Huron with the Mackinac Strait and Lake Michigan.
The Poe Reef Lighthouse is a 25-foot square, four-story building with heavy glass block windows and a stark interior of metal, brick, and masonry. The exterior is painted black on the first and fourth levels, and white on the second and third floors. It is anchored to a 64-foot square crib with a concrete foundation. This place won’t be in the next Parade of Homes, but it could likely be yours for a little more than the current lone bid of $51,000, which satisfied the minimum bid threshold of $50,000.
This lighthouse, and two others on the Great Lakes, are being offered for public auction by the U.S. General Services Administration, which is currently taking bids through the guidelines of the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act (NHLPA). That legislation established an avenue to find new owners for these historic lighthouses, and over the last two decades the GSA has either sold or transferred the ownership of 139 lighthouses, generating some $7.5 million from the sales, funds which help maintain existing lighthouses under federal control.
The current auction also includes the Ontonagon Breakwater Light, a 1900 structure that marks the entrance of the channel leading to the Ontonagon River from Lake Superior and is the westernmost light on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Bidders can also consider the Superior Entry Light, built in 1913, which marks a 10mile long sandbar between the Wisconsin port of Superior and the port of Duluth, Minn. The minimum bid for the Superior Entry Light is $42,000 and the minimum bid for the Ontonagon Breakwater Light is $5,000.
“These lighthouses are important parts of the history of the Great Lakes,” said Sandy Bihn, president of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Preservation Society, which has undertaken an extensive renovation of that 115-year old, fourstory structure in Maumee Bay, off Toledo’s shores. “It is essential that we preserve them and make sure they are around so future generations know the story of these lighthouses and understand their importance.”
The Poe Reef Lighthouse has a strong Ohio connection, since it was built by Orlando Metcalfe Poe, who was a native of Navarre, near Canton. He was a West Point graduate who served as an engineer and surveyor in the Civil War, working as the chief engineer for Union General William Sherman’s infamous “March To The Sea.”
In a more local link to the Lake Huron shoal, the Craig Shipbuilding Company of Toledo was commissioned in 1892 to build lightships, which were used in hazardous locations where lighthouses were not yet present, and one of those manned,wooden-hulled 87-foot-long vessels was placed on Poe Reef in 1893, part of an illuminated four-boat fleet that marked the treacherous passage.
The lighthouse now serving that guardian role is about six miles east of here, between the
mainland and Bois Blanc Island. The Poe Reef Lighthouse went up for auction in 2017, but when the winning bidder defaulted on their $112,111 offer, the lighthouse was placed back in the government portfolio.
Some former federally owned lighthouses have been converted into quaint inns by their new owners, while others have been upgraded into seasonal residences.
The GSA does not maintain demographic information on the winning bidders for lighthouse sales, according to Cat Langel, the public affairs officer for the Great Lakes Region, who added that the sales have ranged from $10,000 up to nearly $1 million. She said all of the light stations conveyed through the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act Program are eligible for or listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Iconic Marblehead
One of the most iconic lighthouses on the Great Lakes, and far and away the most frequently photographed one, is the Marblehead Lighthouse on Lake Erie. It was built in 1822 and is the oldest continually operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes. The 50-foot tall structure is 25-feet wide at its base, with walls five feet thick. During its long tenure guarding a rocky point on the Marblehead Peninsula, 52 miles east of Toledo, the lighthouse had 15 different keepers, including two women, before it was automated.
“Some of the locals here have ancestors who were keepers at the lighthouse, so it’s a very important part of our history. That lighthouse is the spirit of the town,” said Dennis Kennedy, president of the Marblehead Lighthouse Historical Society who heads up an 80-strong volunteer corps that helps maintain the site, and an adjacent museum located in the old keepers house.
“During the 1980s, the GSA declared it surplus property and had plans to tear down the lighthouse and burn the keepers house for a training exercise for the local firefighters,” Mr. Kennedy said. “The locals took exception to that because the place just meant too much to lose it. The townsfolk lobbied every politician around, and at the eleventh hour the lighthouse site was saved.”
Marblehead mayor Jackie Bird said the lighthouse, which sees a million visitors a year, put Marblehead on the map.
“You just don’t have that many buildings or structures with so much history. It’s a gem on the shores of Lake Erie,” she said. “It makes me sad to think that lighthouses in other communities are being sold off. These are something worth saving, protecting, and enjoying.”
But before you jump on the realestatesales.gov website to place a bid on one of the three Great Lakes lighthouses on the auction block, don’t expect to spend much time reading the warranty information — there is none. The government is selling the properties “as-is” and it expects the purchaser to accept the property “with all faults.” Also, be aware that once purchased, the remotely operated light at each lighthouse “will continue to serve as an active aid to navigation, and will remain the property of the U.S. Coast Guard who will retain an access easement to service it.”
The GSA takes 25 pages of legal language to lay out the other stipulations, requirements, and addendums, but a few points stand out. There are warnings that asbestos and lead paint could be present in the structures, and there is an ALL CAPS notice that residents or visitors to the lighthouses could potentially be exposed to loud sounds. The fog horn comes along at no extra charge.