From the archives: Rescuing Block Island’s Southeast Lighthouse
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Seeing the light is the story of a beacon if ever you have been in the dark at Sea when the water below is as black as the sky above there’s no sign anywhere of the way home or of land or of anything at all Beyond deep and distant space on every
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side then you’ll know why in poetry and in scripture the beacon has always had a profound meaning for human beings under some circumstances to see the light literally is to be saved well from David Culhane now here is the story of a light that itself needed
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[Music] saving let us pray almighty god father of All Mankind we come before you now to give thanks for the very successful moving of this treasured historic Black Island Southeast
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Lighthouse now resting securely upon its New Foundation for more than 100 years the light graced the Mohegan Bluffs above the Sea on the Southeast corner of Black Island for centuries ships had foundered on the rocks and shoals here 12 miles off the coast of
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Rhode Island then in 1875 the light and its fog horn began and standing guard giving warning to Mariners arise Shine for the light is come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon thee this Lighthouse would have stood here resolutely against an angry sea over Dr Jerry Abbott
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is one of the residents who treasured the lighthouse so I think it was very much like the character of block Island these very strong yankee sort of individual Resolute and self-determined character they’re proud against the sea they admire the
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sea they love the sea they are in awe of its beauty but they also respect its its danger I spent one long and worried afternoon on a sailboat out there groping through the fog wondering where the Rocks were until I found the southeast light up on the cliffs here thousands
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of sailors and merchant seamen owe their lives to this light but over the last 20 years the Islanders realized that the very existence of the lighthouse was endangered storms ate away at the clay Bluffs and threatened to topple the entire structure into the sea part of my childhood
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growing up because I I lived in a house that didn’t have electricity so the southeast light was a beacon to me Edie Blaine was first Warden the top elected official on the island for some years she was amazed to find that there was a faction that said let the light go the Let Her
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Go faction would say it’s going to cost too much and we’ll just put up a new light right we’ll never be able to do it let it go let’s have the automated thing and then there were the romanticists who said we can’t let it go it’s part of our heritage you are one of the
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romanticists well yes I am I mean I can’t help it I mean I think of that light as a child looking at it in a on a foggy night the beams looked as if to me as a child as if they were tangible that you could walk on those Beams I mean that’s not Romanticism that’s that’s your life right
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that’s that’s my [Music] life a group of Islanders launched a 4-year struggle to find the $2 million plus that it would cost to save the lighthouse to move it back from the edge of the precipice onto safer ground the Islanders themselves raised several hundred thousand and the state and federal
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governments also offered major contributions but the the new light will have a different color among the island residents who worked to save the lighthouse was Malcolm greenaway whose photographs of the landmark have been widely published around the country it was intriguing to come back to it
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at different times uh especially in the winter time there were times I’d be down on the beach and there’d be some beautiful light and a beautiful scene and I’d be the only one there there would also be times when you’d be the only one and see a beautiful sunset there’s something in intrinsic in
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a lighthouse that says the nature of reality it’s not all good I mean here is a beautiful thing but look out there is that dark side to yes there’s something beckoning because it is so lovely the Bluffs are beautiful it’s on the ocean it sits up there high at the same time when you think
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about its intended purpose you realize that there is danger there there is that Underside yes Imagine This the lighthouse weighs an estimated 2,000 tons how do you move something that massive 300 ft back from the sea it’s an incredibly well-built building which is
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one of the reasons we can move it I think with uh some confidence also Dr Jerry Abbott was one of the founders of the group that led the effort to save the lighthouse after months of planning engineering companies were hired they excavate under the building to free it from the
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earth then came a critical two weeks this summer when the structure was set on steel tracks and literally pushed out of danger to its new [Music] location how long have we saved it for should we have moved it back further uh it has been
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calculated that we should be safe for I think over a century perhaps a century and a quarter uh the feeling is that perhaps we’ll make some advances geotechnically that will allow us to retard the erosion if not there is a nice vacant field across the road that’s owned by an old local
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family last weekend the southeast Lighthouse was formally rededicated all of Black Island turned out Edie Blaine was there it’s almost like a Triumph of the human Spirit Well of course it is I anytime that uh the people who are saying yes I can do it uh you know triumph over the one
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that says no I can’t we can’t be done you know that’s a nice thing we did it that’s right we did it and the we is very important we did it Dr Jerry Abbott I spent many nights under this Lighthouse with friends beautiful nights watching full moons uh stormy nights foggy
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nights or the fog horn sort of as you hear sort of this mournful voice makes you think of people that have come and gone who might have stood here also and now they’ll be able to do so [Music] again
