My hat is off to the folks in the Port Washington Historical Society

After I split away from the Wacko caravan in Milwaukee, my plan was to run down to Wind Point to photograph which I did, with the intent of saying goodbye to everyone when they got there. It was hazy enough in Milwaukee that I wouldn't be able to get decent photos of the harbor light hence my change in personal plan. Well, I photographed at Wind Point and hung out until a little after 3 PM waiting for the wacko contingent to arrive. Either they had a change in plan or we just missed each other. In any event, I'm sorry not to have had the chance to say goodbye to everyone Friday afternoon.

At any rate, after I left Wind Point, I drove up to Port Washington to see the restoration of the old lighthouse and the pierhead light. My hat is truly off to the folks in the Port Washington Historical Society for the tremendous job they've done in restoring the old lighthouse, which now has a beautiful lantern room! The series of pics that follow will give those who didn't make it to Port Washington a preview of what awaits you when you do get a chance to visit the old lighthouse.







That a small community like Port Washington can take pride in their heritage, as demonstrated by the beautiful resotration of the old lighthouse makes one wonder what's wrong with Milwaukee??? Why, given that the North Point lighthouse sits directly across the street from what are obviously very affluent folk, hasn't anything been done to preserve that landmark of our maritime heritage?

Sadly, as noted by Ken and Barb Wardius in their book on the Wisconsin Lighthouses, the North Point light is in disrepair. The portholes are weeping "rusty tears" as they put it. The keeper's residence is boarded up and the lawn full of weeds. Hopefully, something will be done to preserve the North Point lighthouse before it is lost through neglect.





[This message has been edited by lighthouse_photo (edited 06-30-2002).]

If anyone is interested, here's the URL to the Port Washington Historical Society's web page where an account of their efforts to restore the old lighthouse can be found.

http://www.ozcoweb.com/ronvoigt/porthistorical/Lightstation.htm

Gary

[This message has been edited by lighthouse_photo (edited 06-29-2002).]

I posted some photos of the Old Lighthouse in Port Washington and I thought I should post at least one of the breakwater light. This photo was shot looking through the forest of masts in the marina out toward the breakwater light. I have some other photos of it but they're on film and I won't have them back until tomorrow.



Gary

Knowing me, Gary - lol, can you guess which photo I like the best of these?

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Terry (Only my mother, brothers & sisters call me Teresa) Forrest

Well, Gary, we went out to see the other 2 Milwaukee lights and then had to stop just before Wind Point to do some "Harbour Lighthousing" - seems some were overdue for a "fix". On the positive side, there were some good finds for folks.

Your pic is too kind to North Point. This is a very nice light that is sinking fast. As you mentioned, it is in a very nice neighborhood and in a very pretty park for all practical purposes. (We were going to photograph some other "scenery" in the park, but Carolyn said we couldn't.) Hard to believe they can't find 50 or so lighthouse lovers in Milwaukee to form a club and adopt this light!



Dave


[This message has been edited by Dave H (edited 07-02-2002).]

There is a club that has started fund raising to restore North Point Light. I have the info at home.

Suzanne

(I worked 4 hours last night during my oncall, so I figured I could check the forums today at work.)

I went to see the Port Washington Light a few weeks ago. It seems I went to the breakwater light but missed the other one. Where was it? How could I have missed it? Now I have to go all the way back. Beautiful pictures though! Thanks Gary for showing me what I missed.

Suzanne, good to hear that a club is raising the money to restore North Point. It would be such a shame to let it slide into oblivion.

Gary

Payback for last weekend, eh??? Hopefully that group for North Point will be able to swing into action quickly. A clean-up of the grounds (kill the major weeds, mow the lawn and such) would go a long ways towards making the light look more presentable.

Carol, if you are going to travel the Great Lakes you must buy the 3 Penrose books. The old light is probably less than a mile as the car drives (lot closer as the light flashes). A couple weeks ago is when they were having the grand re-dedication.

Dave
p.s. Have we mentioned that if you are going to lighthouse the Great Lakes you need the Penrose books????

Great pictures once agian Gary! (Yours too Dave!) It was sad seeing North Point in such sad shape! Hopefully it will be restored to it's former beauty!

Port Washington Light looks fantastic!!!

Yeah Dave, somewhat of a payback since I wasn't supposed to be oncall on Monday night. I took it because the person who was supposed to be oncall was having trouble with thin client and I had a new program installed that night that I wanted to watch. Well, one of our computer platform service people forgot to make some GDG files that I had requested the week before, so my program died. Also, the co-worker over the weekend left one of the VSAM files empty and that caused problems in three more programs.

Oh yeah, the reason I got called on Saturday... I didn't know that my co-worker changed one of my programs earlier on Saturday and that it was the job that did not work on Saturday night. He made a mistake. Then this co-worker was unavailable when he said he would be available and they couldn't find him, but they found me in Chicago.

He acted very sheepish Monday morning and avoided me until late afternoon when he finally admitted he had made a mistake in the job. I also found out he forgot to OK over a dozen programs I had ready to move to production on Saturday. This delayed things also.

So, if I would have stayed home instead of going to Rosemont, I would have spent my time making sure other people did their work. I'm sorry, they don't pay me to do that!

Suzanne

See info regarding Milwaukee North Point Light here: http://www.lighthousekeepers.com/forums/Forum36/HTML/000069.html

Sounds like you had an extremely frustrating time, Suzanne, due to some people having the inability to do their jobs right!!

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Terry (Only my mother, brothers & sisters call me Teresa) Forrest