Rumorous Tidbits

Information contained in these links seem to support LH Ghost's statement regarding the location of the light:
http://www.perlman.net/lighthouse_trips/Oldfortwashington.htm
http://www.cheslights.org/heritage/fortwashington.htm

The original 6th order Fresnel:
http://members.home.net/larryslights/images/Misc/6thorder.jpg

is on display (right next to the 1st order from Assateague) at the Oyster & Maritime Museum in Chincoteague, VA:
http://www.chincoteaguechamber.com/oyster/omm.html

I just visited Fort Washington light on Tuesday October 9th. It does indeed have a light in the bell tower.

Suzanne

I heard from one of the reps that HL is testing the Historic Buildings that can be commissioned from dealers. The editions would have to be at least 1200 but could be split among dealers. The pieces would have to be historic buildings NOT lighthouses, however, Fort Washington has a light on it, which has caused some controversy. I know they probably want to expand the market, but I would prefer they stay with the lights -- there are so many more to do!
Linda

Question John. How come Point Allerton has an HL # when it's not a lighthouse?

Rich

------------------

Rich,

My guess on Allerton would be that it was done and numbered before HL gave serious thought to taking on a new line.

Speaking of a new line, lets think about what we have here. So often we complain about way too many new releases each year, and the overwhelming expense to acquire them all. We want smaller production runs of the lights that are made. However, HL has to produce and sell enough product to cover the overhead and, capitalist that I am, make a return on their investment.

Enter Historic Buildings. I could envision many possibilities here. You know that any organization wanting a quality product would love a product from Younger & Associates. Look at all they have in place to produce lighthouses. Given that Y&A would surely have a minimum number to be ordered, and probably some decent up front money to cover out of pocket set up costs, why not look at a new market? There are few companies that can touch the quality of the products we love, and I see nothing wrong with using specialty sales to support the product we love. I would also venture a guess that anything that was made along these lines would not be a HL, but would have a new company name attached, or would simply be from Y & A.

Why not use other products to keep their operation busy? We could potentially benefit from fewer new HLs each year, keeping our collections more in the affordable range. Yes, their are still many lights to be sculpted, but I (and my checkbook) prefer they be stretched over a longer period of time. Besides, most of the "biggies" have been done; this means that many of the remaining lights will not be as nationally well known and may be a harder sale.

If the Younger family was not looking at ways to solidify their position and at the same time use their skills and knowledge and manufacturing capability I would be very surprised.

IMHO,
Dave

[This message has been edited by Dave H (edited 10-14-2001).]

I think Dave has hit it right on the head.

Harbour Lights has been approached by other interests in the past wanting them to sculpt some building or other but had always decided to turn down these commissions.

Now they are accepting them. The primary difference - in most cases, the entire production run would be pre-sold. It might be a single dealer or group of dealers in a region who want to have a sculpture of an historic courthouse, for example.

Or it might be members of a church or synagogue who want to have a sculpture of their place of worship perhaps to use as a fundraiser.

Or it could be a University or Alumni Association who want to have their campus landmark sculpted again to raise money or reward significant contributors.

Harbour Lights' reputation for historical accuracy and exquisite sculpting could be leveraged to generate income without the need to call upon lighthouse collectors.

This would enable a reduction in the number of limited edition lighthouses issued each year.

While the Ft. Washington piece seems to fit the distribution quantities and method of the "Historic Building" line mentioned above by Linda it does appear to be more of a lighthouse as she and others have mentioned.

And the Pt. Allerton piece, being a life saving station, is certainly at least a cousin to the lighthouse, as their goal of saving lives at sea or on the lakes was very similar.

Now if HL we going to get into producing buildings such as the Washington Cathedral, the White House or the Arch in St. Louis that would be a different kettle of fish.

I guess if they were to do this and the result would help to ensure the continuation of the HL Lighthouse and associated type structures, figurine line that would be good. If it took away from the HL "family" type association that we currently experience that would be not good.

Sue,

If they were to do commissioned pieces, as John mentions, the entire run would be pre-sold. You would not be dealing with people who want to collect all (or a portion of) the line. These would be one-off items, surely without a flag on them as we are used to seeing on HLs. The folks would get a very high quality, accurate representation of the building they wanted. In turn, there would be a new inflow of funds to Y & A.

Result? Adequate income for Y & A, allowing them to possibly reduce the number of HLs they must produce each year, making most of us happy. I seriously doubt you would see them drift away from their first love, and our passion, HL LHs. Since most of the people who would purchase one of the new models would purchase only the one their college/town/place of worship woould commission I don't think you would see a base of fanatical collectors (such as we have). Personally, I see this as a win - win situation.

Dave

So....Why didn't the Younger family explain all of this at the Baltimore Reunion. Seems like it would have been a perfect time to tell us what is going on with the company.

Historic buildings(within the U.S.) were done by Lilliput Lane. They were not able to make a go of it even though they produced a top-notch collectible.

I might have missed it but I don't recall very much new product information being discussed at the Reunion. The Fresnel Lenses came up but they were presented as if everyone in the room already had known about them.

Sean, there was an impromtu discussion by the HL store before the Sunday breakfast (One of the meals?) where I heard some of this stuff while passing by. BY and many of the Wackos were just sitting around shooting the breeze.
- Bob

Don't get me wrong Bob, I'm not saying I missed out on these discussions and rumors. What I am saying is at the Reunion Harbour Lights mentioned very little about their products. The Focus was fundraising, praising clubs, lighthouse restoration and September 11th.

Bob.. that wasn't an impromptu gathering. Bill got some of the Club Presidents and past Presidents together for some good old fashion damage control. He was informing the group of Lighthouse Depot's fax pas, of jumping the gun on their exclusive announcement and especially the Fresnels that to soon be produced by Harbour Lights. The Fresnels were to be premiered at the Reunion.
Bill also was doing damage control with some of Harbour Lights dealers since they were supposed to learn about the exclusive piece from them first. My dealer got a phone call from Bill that same Sunday morning explaining that this wasn't part of the Harbour Lights line and that they would do the same thing for him if he would like a historical building produced with a minimum of 1200 pieces. Bill added hopefully not a lighthouse.....

I was trying to set-up my presention (of the first two days of the Reunion) right next to where Bill chose to gather so I missed a lot of the meeting but that was part of it.

SaintWackoPaul'
Keep the Flame

Yesterday I had occasion to call HL. While waiting for one of the Customer Service folks to come on-line I was put on hold.
(Don't believe this ever happened to me before. Maybe they were busy with folks trying to order the Hooper Strait Reunion Attendee piece?

Anywho as I waited there were HL "commercials" to listen to. I came in half-way through one of them and I thought I heard a "White House" piece being promoted. After I reached the Customer Services person and we completed our business we chatted about this for a bit. As there is apparently no White House in the works, I concluded what I must have heard was "lighthouse"! Thought for a while there I'd picked up another rumor!

I can't believe, that with all the research I did for our sightseeing prior to the Reunion, that I didn't learn about the Oyster & Maritime Museum in Chincoteague, VA until reading this thread! We ate lunch in Chincoteague before going to Assateague to see the lighthouse and the beach (then on the Ocean City to see the USLSS Station). I would have loved to have seen those Fresnels. What a bummer!

Oh well, guess it's a reason to go back some time.

FrankB

Frank,

The trick would have been figuring out when the museum was actually open to visit. I don't believe anyone in the area knows for sure. It is too bad, as it is always a treat to get to view a lens. In the off-season, the museum appears to only be open weekends. You drive past it on the way in or out of the park.

Dave

We passed the museum as we were leaving -- I was thinking "why would anyone want to see Oysters in a museum?"

I don't know about the oysters...but I do know that the 1st order Fresnel Lens inside look pretty darn nice gleaming through the front windows of the museum!

I caught a glimpse of it when my wife drove by it during a return trip from climbing Assteague Light over the Labor Day weekend. Needless to say, we turned around at the nearby McDonalds down the street, and went back to see the original Asseteague lens.
WOW! This thing is huge...when you stand next to it. I wonder if a 1st Order would fit in my family room? Doesn't matter...I would never be able to pay for one. I guess I will just have to settle for a 5th Order lens. (dreaming....)

Christopher

When we were there in June, I paid the admission to the museum, just to take pictures of the lens. I spent some time in the lobby, clicking the photos of the big lens behind the red velvet roping. Finally, the woman behind the front desk asked, "would you like to go behind it?". She actually let me get INSIDE the lens. WOW!!! That was very cool!

John,
Some folks look at any thing that is good to EAT.

So where are the shots from the inside Larry???

Here you go....

http://members.home.net/nohe5/al3.jpg

http://members.home.net/nohe5/al8.jpg


The only disappointment was the plain ol' lightbulb inside...



[This message has been edited by Larry (edited 10-18-2001).]

Larry - had they put an actual Lighthouse Bulb in that big Fresnel it would have fried all those Oysters.

Ummmm..... Fried Oysters!
Sounds Yummy

Christopher