Hines Sight / Shedding light on our historic beacon

Fairfield Beach Road resident Paige Herman once told me that the Penfield Reef Lighthouse is hers. I won't dispute that. Her front yard is Long Island Sound, and when she walks out of her house, the lighthouse is right there. OK, well, technically, not "right there" as the reef to the lighthouse is about a mile long. But Paige has an unobstructed view of the historic landmark. I envy her.

A fourth-generation Fairfielder who has lived at the beach for more than 60 years (32 of them as a year-round resident), she has witnessed a number of boaters who failed to properly navigate the reef, and on more than one occasion, she has gone to their rescue.

I had the opportunity a few years ago to walk the reef at extreme low tide to the lighthouse with the Fairfield Pacers, a hearty group of senior citizens who try to make that trek every year if possible. We couldn't get to the base of the lighthouse because of the rocks and water, but it was thrilling to see the historic structure up close.

But that is only part of the story surrounding the lighthouse. It has a rich, fabled history, including the contention that it is haunted. Town Historian Marcia Miner has written a comprehensive snapshot of the lighthouse's past on her blog, http://marciaminersroomwithaview.blogspot.com. More history on the lighthouse also can be found at www.lighthousefriends.com. The circa-1874 lighthouse, a Second Empire design, was built for $55,000.

Marcia writes that years later, lighthouse keeper Frederick Jordan "set out in his rowboat just before Christmas to visit his family. After fighting the rough seas, the boat overturned as his helpless assistant, who had tried to launch a rescue boat, watched in horror."

This is where the ghosts come in. She writes, "The assistant, so one story goes, was convinced that he saw Jordan a few days later in the lighthouse and that the logbook had been taken from the shelf and left opened to the page describing how Jordan had died."

The lighthouse's storied past includes its being saved by the federal government in the early 1970s and being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

The lighthouse is as synonymous with Fairfield as the dogwood tree. But the lighthouse is in danger of being abandoned and left to deteriorate since the federal General Services Administration has declared it to be "surplus." It is set to go on the auction block in August.

The Board of Selectmen recently created the Penfield Reef Lighthouse Preservation Committee, which will examine ways to purchase it without using town funds. Fourteen residents have been appointed to the committee -- Paige Herman and Michael Jehle, executive director of the Fairfield Museum and History Center, among them. Including Jehle is vital because the museum should be a lead organization in acquiring and preserving the lighthouse.

This is the town's second attempt at purchasing the lighthouse. In 2008, the town lost its bid to Beacon Preservation, according to www.lighthousefriends.com. Earlier this year, Beacon lost its claim to the lighthouse after a dispute with the federal government. That's why it is back up for sale.

I am all for acquiring the lighthouse to be part of Fairfield's historical inventory, but only if no town funds are expended -- except for maybe application fees and a feasibility study that costs no more than $10,000.

The town already is looking at a stack of big bills: upwards of $6 million (maybe more) to finish the new train station's site cleanup and construction; multi millions of dollars for school building projects; the completion of the Penfield Pavilion -- and who knows what else will come up. Not to mention we just came off a bitter budget-setting season in which $2.8 million was cut from the school budget.

Now is not the time for excess expenditures.

But there are undoubtedly ways to purchase and repair the lighthouse and preserve it for future generations with outside funding -- grants, partnerships with nonprofit organizations or with one or both of the universities in town, and private donations. I'd be willing to donate some money.

The Penfield Reef Lighthouse has watched over Fairfield for generations. The least we can do is make an attempt to watch over it.

Patricia A. Hines' "Hines Sight" appears each Friday. She can be reached at hinessight@hotmail.com. She also can be followed at http://blog.ctnews.com/hines.