SPECIAL TO THE JOURNAL-REGISTER
POINT BREEZE — The six-year dream of local organizers to place a replica lighthouse at the edge of Oak Orchard Harbor is about to become reality. This was confirmed Nov. 14 at the annual Oak Orchard Lighthouse Surf and Turf Dinner.
Peg Wiley, a founder of the movement and now a vice president of the board of trustees, confirmed that the Oak Orchard Lighthouse Museum has accepted a construction bid of $163,984 for the basic structure and awarded the contract to Nathaniel General Contractors of Rochester.
Wiley said the bid has been approved by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation and Orleans County, and the plan appears to have a lighthouse standing at the harbor by June or July 2010. Construction will likely start in early spring.
The move means that all the preliminary promotion and fundraising since 2003 will come to focus at a point aside the east pier of the harbor, not far from the large structure which once was the Lakeland Hotel (now the home of the Eugene Haines family).
By next spring, it is expected that a 34-foot-tall lighthouse will appear in its historic splendor, recreating a longstanding structure that stood at Point Breeze through the 19th century and until it was wrecked by a storm in 1916.
Richard Anderson, president of the Oak Orchard Lighthouse Museum board, also was pleased about the award of a construction bid. “We have worked long and hard since 2003 and have seen excitement build across Orleans County,” he said. “This can be a jewel of a tourist attraction, accompanied by the planned museum and gardens and a stunning walkway.”
In July, a first round of bidding was held on construction of the basic lighthouse, and the board was shocked to receive proposals far in excess of available funding. Weeks of intensive work went into a second look at the plans, delaying some of the elements to a second phase. Eventual success in bidding led to assignment of the work to Nathaniel Contractors, a firm that not long ago remodeled the historic Albion grammar school into apartments for senior citizens.
Major challenges now come to the surface as the OOLM board seeks to finance other parts of the project. Those elements include the Memorial Walkway, a ramp leading to the lighthouse replicating the original pier walkway, and the Children’s Peace Garden. The original steel oil house from the 19th century lighthouse is still in existence and can be sponsored for $5,000. Housed at the Cobblestone Museum for almost a century, it has been granted back to the project on permanent loan once the lighthouse is built. A sponsorship value is yet to be determined for the pier/ramp element.
The most colorful element of all is the Compass Rose in the walkway. This will be crafted of Medina sandstone inset with blue and white granite. The Compass Rose is designed to be about 10 feet in diameter and circled by an inscription reading: “The silent sea was aflame, the day was all but done, and resting on the western shore, the perfect setting sun.”
The Compass Rose, by far the most expensive element aside from the lighthouse structure, itself, is seeking sponsorship of $24,000. This element can be co-sponsored for a collaborative effort to support the project. The four benches of Medina sandstone from the sidewalks of old Albion, carved by George Graham, will encircle the Compass Rose. The benches have already been sponsored.
Wiley and Anderson said they will welcome inquiries at any time for funding these special features, and the call goes out to individuals and also to businesses and organizations. Co-sponsoring is encouraged for all elements.
Individual bricks for the lighthouse walkway have been available for five years at $50 apiece and will continue to be marketed. They will bear names of donors, as will all sponsored features at the lighthouse site.
“Some real work lies ahead in this project, but it would be nice if a group of area industries or organizations banded together to sponsor elements at the site,” said Wiley as she and Anderson discussed the construction work of the next eight months.
The start of lighthouse construction automatically moves the big project into its second phase, seeking a site for a permanent maritime museum. “The museum will collect, archive and preserve the maritime history and artifacts from our area,” said Wiley. “And a program will be set up for research and organized cultural activities.” She said a major focus for the new museum may be the history of maritime wrecks in western Lake Ontario, and the committee is working on establishing important relationships to that end.
The construction work of the replica lighthouse and the plan for a museum come at a time when civic excitement and unity at Point Breeze are reaching new highs. On Nov. 16, the Oak Orchard Neighborhood Association was organized, bringing together nearly a dozen separate groups in the community.
For more information on the Oak Orchard Lighthouse Museum project, or to sponsor a personalized brick, go to www.oakorchardlighthouse.org. For sponsorship of any of the elements listed above, call Anderson at 941 741-8042 or e-mail oootl@aol.com.
