Lighthouses in Vermont - Colchester Reef Light, Isle La Motte Light, Windmill Point Light, Burlington Breakwater Lights, Juniper Island Light (Paperback)

Chapters: Colchester Reef Light, Isle La Motte Light, Windmill Point Light, Burlington Breakwater Lights, Juniper Island Light. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 21. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Colchester Reef Light - This lighthouse was one of a group of New England lighthouses built to the same plan. Nearly identical lighthouses were constructed at Sabin Point, Pomham Rocks, and Rose Island. In the mid-nineteenth century, due in large part to the booming lumber business, which relied on easy shipping of raw timber from Canada to planing mills in western Vermont, commerce on Lake Champlain significantly increased. To protect ships in potentially hazardous waterways, the Lighthouse Service held a national competition for lighthouse designs, and Albert R. Dow, a Burlington native from the University of Vermont, won the commission. The Lighthouse Service implemented Dows designs in building the Colchester Reef Lighthouse, which marked the reef consisting of several groups of exposed rocks northwest of Colchester Point. It was completed in 1871. Because the lighthouse needed to endure the lakes strong winds and heavy winter ice-floes, Dow pegged and bolted together the lighthouses twenty-five-foot square stone foundation, post-and-beam frame and tower, and slate and tin roof. Dow then secured the entire building with one and a half inch thick iron rods to assure its stability. Despite Dows focus on the buildings framework, he ornamented his lighthouse with a mansard roof and scrolled window frames typical of the then-fashionable French Second Empire style. A sixth order Fresnel lens exhibited a fixed red light beginning in 1871. The lighthouse served as both the home and workplace of eleven successive keepers and their families. The first floor was divided into a living room an...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=18576293