Published Thursday, April 2, 2009

For sale: One lighthouse. New owner must have a shine for history.
Joe and Mary Yocius are selling the Bloody Point Range Lighthouse on Daufuskie Island they have called home for the past decade.

If you want to buy a lighthouse, bear in mind this one won't be like the 132-foot-tall Hunting Island State Park Lighthouse, with its 167 steps spiraling up to an osprey's view of the Atlantic Ocean. It's not like the candy-striped faux lighthouse of Harbour Town, or even the wood-framed lighthouse at Haig Point on Daufuskie's north end.

The Bloody Point lighthouse looks like a small Victorian house, not a lighthouse. It was built in 1883 to beam a flashing red light from its second-floor dormer window. That light was paired with another one in an 81-foot-tall metal tower nearby to help guide ships into the Savannah River.

Its duty as a lighthouse ended in 1910. Then it became the lighthouse keeper's dwelling. The taller lighthouse nearby came down during World War II.

From its beginning, the lighthouse has been home to some great Lowcountry characters. Lighthouse keepers were a hardy breed who chose to live in oblivion, were paid peanuts and were weighted down every night of the year with the life-and-death burden of safety at sea.

Daufuskie legend Arthur Ashley "Papy" Burn lived there. He hated all government, outlived three wives, made wine on the side and dreamed about sailing around the world. He arrived as assistant light-keeper in 1913. He left a year later but returned to buy the lighthouse in 1926, four years after it was decommissioned.

"Papy" held magistrate court in the "sun room," and three generations of the Burn family have contributed to a better life on Daufuskie.

Today, the dormer window offers a 180-degree view of the Bloody Point Golf Course. It stands near the Silver Dew Winery building, sold separately. "Papy" made his wine there from local berries and fruit. That old brick lamp house was carefully restored by Yocius, a more modern Lowcountry character who came from up North, calls himself a "marketing guy, pure and simple" and trademarked himself as Realtor "Lowcountry Joe."

He has the lighthouse and 2.7 acres on the market for $875,000. He says at 65 it's time for a new chapter in his life.

He hopes the home, which was being used as a golf pro shop when he bought it, can find a loving owner. He's looking for someone like past owners James P. and Mary "Tootie" Black.

They refurbished it, board by board, between 1983 and 1988, restoring its heart-of-pine floors, walls and ceilings.

When asked why, Black said, "This house stands in quiet, independent dignity, reveling in the tide of history it has participated in."