The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Who wants a lighthouse?
Two local groups vie for free Lynde Point Lighthouse
OLD SAYBROOK — The New London Maritime Society has thrown its hat in the ring for the federal government’s giveaway of the iconic Lynde Point Lighthouse.
The Government Service Administration is giving away the lighthouse for free to a nonprofit or municipality that would maintain it, open it to the public and offer educational opportunities.
The maritime society is competing with the Borough of Fenwick in Old Saybrook, a small municipality with some 83 homes, where the lighthouse is located.
The deadline to submit applications for the lighthouse was Nov. 30, 2023, after which the GSA turned the submissions over to the National Parks Service (NPS) for review and to make a decision. But officials do not when that will happen as there is “no set timeline,” according to Paul Hughes of the GSA. Spokespersons for both groups have said they are willing to work with each other no matter the decision.
Susan Tamulevich, maritime society director, said her group is the most logical choice as it is a steward to three lighthouses in and off New London Harbor. Lighthouses are important because “they are landmarks that people care about,” Tamulevich said. “They’ve very important landmarks to our history.”
The society maintains the lighthouses and provides public access via boat and has educational programming in place, she noted.
The maritime society owns Ledge Light at the mouth of the Thames River, Race Rock Lighthouse off Fishers Island and New London Harbor Lighthouse.
Tamulevich said the maritime society meets all three “requirements of stewardship” for Lynde Point Lighthouse set forth by the GSA.
One requirement, Tamulevich said, “is preservation, which is what we do every day with those other lighthouses.”
“We do our best with our lighthouses — Harbor Light is in very good shape — we have $200,000” to go toward maintenance, she said. “We’ll be doing restoration to Ledge Light this summer; we also have $100,000 to apply to Race Rock.
“The maritime society — although we are small — when push comes to shove, we get the support,” she said.
Providing educational programming is another stipulation by the GSA.
“We do that every day with our exhibition at the maritime museum,” Tamulevich said, noting that the society goes into New London public schools to teach about the lighthouses and school groups are invited to the Custom House Maritime Museum.
Additionally, there is a camera mounted on the chimney of the museum which tracks lighthouses 24/7, she added, and “you can actually see these three lighthouses at night from the roof of the custom house.”
The NLMS also is active on social media with a Facebook page for
each lighthouse.
Public access is another condition of the property transfer, she noted. The maritime society is in a position to offer public access to Lynde Point, which is “in a tricky spot” with limited public access, Tamulevich said.
“But it’s not tricky for us,” she added.
Limited access from Sequassen Avenue, the only road which leads to the lighthouse, is problematic. While the road is not private per se, it’s not exactly public. The Borough of Fenwick “formally discontinued” Sequassen as a public road in 1928, according to Newt Brainard, warden of the Borough of Fenwick. But what really impedes access to the lighthouse from Sequassen, Brainard said, is the last 100 yards of the road which “is private as it goes across two pieces of private property.”
As far as right of egress, “The Borough’s in no different position than anybody else,” Brainard said.
The municipality, like any other group, will have to “negotiate any access” with the private owners whether it’s for the new owner or the public.
“So, the private landowners have to agree to any type of public access and private access,” he explained. If there is no access by land, the NLMS will go by sea, according to Tamulevich. “Two of our lighthouses are offshore,” she said, “so, when people visit either Harbor Lighthouse or Ledge lighthouse, they go by boat.”
“We have the ability to land on lighthouses in the middle of Long Island Sound,” she said. “So why can’t we just land at that sea wall, a ladder that goes down the side and people can climb up — just like they do at Race Rock.”
First Selectman Carl Fortuna said he supports Fenwick getting the lighthouse and said so at a recent Board of Selectmen meeting.
“Of course, we would support our own,” Fortuna said. “And that’s how I felt about Fenwick.
“They are taxpayers of this town. They contribute significantly to the grand list. And that’s not why I supported it — they are old Saybrook residents,” Fortuna said.
Should Fenwick end up with the lighthouse, the maritime society would be willing to work with the municipality, Tamulevich said.
“Of course, we would work with Fenwick if they got the lighthouse because they don’t know anything about the lighthouses or lighthouse history,” Tamulevich said.
Brainard said the borough and the NLMS would be “ultimately working together” regardless of who the National Parks Service chooses. Mostly because the maritime society has expertise the municipality lacks.
“Like historic lighthouses — that’s what they do — their mission,” Brainard said.
“If they become owners, because we are the municipality that surrounds it, we would work with them to best help them out and help the residents and manage the access,” Brainard said.