Ready to roll... : Custom House Maritimes
Please be patient, it can take
some time to load the photos.
See what happened at the Custom House in May 2012, April 2012, March 2012, February 2012, January 2012December 2011,   November 2011, October 2011,  September 2011, August 2011, July 2011, June 2011, May 2011April 2011, March 2011January-February 2011November-December  2010, with our new 3-year program with the NL Public Schools Lighthouse Kids, in  September-October 2010,  in August 2010, summer festivities in June-July 2010, special Amistad events in April-May 2010, our trip to the UN with the Amistad exhibition in January-March 2010 in 2009, 2008,

& why not see how the Whale Tail fountain was made!

Attend our One Big Table with NYT writer Molly O'Neill.

Read our Winter 2011 and Fall 2010 newsletters.

The New London Maritime Society/Custom House Maritime Museum is made possible by generous grants from The Chester Kitchings Family Foundation, the Connecticut Humanities Council, Dominion Foundation, the Bodenwein Public Benevolent Foundation, the Frank Loomis Palmer Fund, the Community Foundation of Eastern CT, & and by the work of dedicated volunteers, members & friends.


HAPPY 250th NEW LONDON HARBOR LIGHT!

Ready to roll...

by Susan on 04/21/14

It's only April, but we're all about lighthouses once again!

Today we received notice that Yankee Magazine selected us as
2014 “Editors’ Choice” winner in Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England. We won for Best Lighthouse Tour! This designation is awarded by Yankee’s editors and contributors who name select restaurants, lodgings, and attractions in New England to the exclusive list. For 38 years, Yankee Magazine’s Travel Guide to New England has been the most widely distributed and best-selling guide to the six-state region, providing readers with a comprehensive vacation-planning tool and daily reference. 

The Summer Lighthouse Boat Tours have grown since the we took ownership of our first lighthouse (October 2010), from one weekend in 2011 to 16 weekends in 2014. The boats are small, the trip is exciting! Running the trips is an all-volunteer effort and the New London Maritime Society's major fund-raising activity for preserving the area's lighthouses. Our volunteers have a lot to be proud of! This year, we also are restoring New London Harbor 'Pequot' Light--the oldest and tallest lighthouse on Long Island Sound so this award is especially significant for us; it will give the program a terrific boost! Thank you Yankee Magazine!

Our spring campaign to raise money for the New London Harbor Lighthouse restoration in honor of Ben Martin passed $39,000 Friday! Thank you all! We have had many contributions, larger & smaller, but all heart-felt with true love for the lighthouse. Thank you.

Work continues at the lighthouse, both Hurricane Sandy restoration funded at 75% by FEMA, and preliminary testing in advance of the lighthouse restoration, which begins in another month. This week, mason Harald Hefel continued to replace storm-damaged walls on the lighthouse property; using our one original as a model, Dave Fallon and David Lersch are donating the remaking brass lighthouse vent controls for the lighthouse lantern room; and masons Scott Loring and sons have been
carefully opening up test sections of interior lighthouse walls to determine how the tower was built. What they've discovered can partially be seen in this photo taken in a window well. The original tower is granite with a 16" facing of brownstone. (Did you know: originally the lighthouse was not painted but left with the brownstone finish.) In the mid 1800s, the lighthouse's original 1801 wooden stairway was replaced with a cast-iron circular stair. At that time, the interior of the lighthouse was lined with brick to fit around the new stairway. What Scott Loring discovered is that between the original wall and the brick lining is a hollow space, but the two walls are tied together with brick flanges at several points. In mid-May, the scaffolding will be in place to redo the exterior of the lighthouse. It is important to know that this tower is not a single compressed mass, but two individual structures.

Comments (0)


Leave a comment