Lighthouses of the World: An Architect’s Coloring Book
Barns of the St Croix Valley: An Architect’s Sketchbook
Barn Coloring Book
How I Met Your Grandmother
Capture the Moment: An Architect’s Guide to Travel Sketching
Author’s
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Author’s Note
Locations refer to current towns and cities which may not have existed in the early days .
Conditions are seldom static—names and situations may have changed since noted herein
The term lighthouse is used to describe a variety of aids to navigation whether they be lights with houses attached or nearby or simply steel frames with a light atop . Since the US Coast Guard adds or subtracts lights with some frequency, they may or may not be currently lit .
The color sketches are whimsical impressions of what is captured in the moment . They’re not detailed like a photo—they come from the heart .
Foreword
So many books about lighthouses have been published over the past few decades . Some present detailed history, some are full of gorgeous photographs, and others tell first-hand stories of lighthouse keeping . But I don’t recall anything like this book . It’s a thoroughly original and delightful combination of whimsical sketchbook, personal journal, and pertinent history highlights .
Jim Lammers is an accomplished architect, but the illustrations in this book are not precise architectural renderings Instead, they represent Jim’s emotional and artistic response to his lighthouse visits . The depictions are roughly accurate in their dimensions and details, but they also have a very personal, slightly whimsical quality . The sketches are Jim’s way of interpreting these scenes and communicating the experience to us .
This is the perfect coffee table book . It can be picked up and opened to any page at random, resulting in instant enchantment . A nd in addition to the sketches, there’s an incredible amount of historical information in these pages The facts are interspersed with Jim’s travel reflections, sometimes including fun details on things like food and lodging . (I’ll pass on the deep-fried cheesecake .)
I’m also pleased that the scope of the book spills out beyond the borders of the Great Lakes to encompass many beacons on all the coasts of our nation and even into Canada and other countries . Attention is also paid to the illustrious U S Life Saving Service, as well as present-day efforts to preserve lighthouses
Jim claims that he was inspired by my book The Lighthouse Handbook: West Coast . W hen I was growing up in the Boston area in the 1960s, I was inspired by the historian Edward Rowe Snow . Like Jim Lammers, Snow mixed his personal experiences with the history he wrote about, making it more accessible .
I always imagine that through his writing and lecturing, Edward Rowe Snow was tossing pebbles into a pond The ever-widening ripples from those pebbles eventually reached me . Decades later I threw some pebbles of my own, and I’m so happy that some of the ripples I initiated reached Jim and helped bring his book into the world .
What an honor and pleasure to be asked by Jim to write the preface for this book . I have no doubt that it will create far-reaching ripples to inspire future lighthouse preservationists, historians, and sketchers .
—Jeremy D’Entremont, Historian, United States Lighthouse Society
Preface
This charming book is a personal tribute to Great Lakes lighthouses . Author, architect, and artist, Jim Lammers gives us much more than the drawings he sketched while on his journey around the Great Lakes . He gives us a history lesson as well . He outlines the growth of commerce throughout the Great Lakes region, talks about famous shipwrecks, illustrates lighthouse design and construction, explains advances in light sources and lenses . Lammers also tells stories about the keepers and their families, notes the progression of governmental oversight, and explains procedures in place for lighthouse preservation .
Lighthouse history begins in 1789 when 12 privately held lighthouses were nationalized by the first congress and put under the direction of the Treasury Department headed by Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton . Lammers details the lighthouse oversight progression from 1789 to today’s Coast Guard management
We’re fortunate that so many lighthouses were built with quality materials and were meticulously maintained by their keepers . We can step back in history and walk the same paths, climb the same towers, and witness the same views as the keepers . Our nostalgic feelings about lighthouses and their keepers are far different from their daily work . It was most often monotonous and solitary Besides tending the light, keepers constantly cleaned lantern room windows, polished lenses, painted the tower, responded to the occasional crisis of an overturned vessel nearby, or acted as tour guide for visitors .
Lammers, in his spotlight on Great Lakes lighthouses, is especially qualified in discussing lighthouse construction . A n architect and artist, he talks about and illustrates evolving foundation and tower designs, building materials, light sources, lens progression, and color choices
Next time you’re visiting a lighthouse, note its color Lammers points out that distinctive colors are daymarks that help identify lighthouses in daylight . Towers are often red or black to contrast with the sky, while the bottom is white—to stand out from the forest often surrounding it at the time . The red daymark boards on the Cheboygan Front Range lighthouse make it stand out from the city surrounding it . Many lighthouses on Lake Michigan are painted solid red . Candy cane stripes and distinctive horizontal black bands are also featured .
The Great Lakes boast more than 200 active lighthouses . Lammers, in his travels, notes which ones are accessible and open to visitors . He tells about those that include museums, gift shops, and a couple that are now bed and breakfasts where he spent the night . We learn about the ownership of lighthouses by nonprof-
its, cities, counties, national parks, historical societies, and private parties . There are several lighthouses now decommissioned, abandoned, and falling into disrepair . They could be saved . The nostalgia cost is high, however, with Lammers outlining the process . Lighthouses, of course, were built to enable the expansion of commerce and shipping . While commerce on the Great lakes began in the 1600s, Marblehead, built in 1821 in Ohio, was the first lighthouse built on the Great Lakes . It sits at the entrance to Sandusky Bay, the safest harbor between Cleveland and Toledo . Cargo shipped through the Great Lakes has changed through the years; it shifted from wheat to copper to lumber in the 1800s . Following that was coal and iron ore . We know that lighthouses were instrumental during World War II when shipping resources to build munitions .
Most authorities estimate at least 6,000 shipwrecks on the Great Lakes, with more than 30,000 lives lost We mourn them all . We cannot guess at the number of lives saved by the beacons . Lammers talks about a few shipwrecks, including the most notable Edmund Fitzgerald, which went down in 1975 . We all know the story of the sinking in Lake Superior thanks to the ballad by Gordon Lightfoot . W hile it’s tragic that all 29 drowned, it’s far from the worst of Great Lakes shipwrecks . The Eastland, a passenger ship, sank in Chicago, losing 835 lives in 1915 . In 1958, the Michigan town of Rogers City was devastated with the sinking of the Carl Bradley which lost 33 of the 35 lives on board 23 of those who died lived in Rogers City; 53 children were left fatherless after the sinking .
The author’s journey around the Great Lakes is a roadmap for lighthouse afficionados . See all the accessible lighthouse structures . In addition, Lammers notes helpful landmarks, dining spots, and locations for a good Martini Jim Lammers puts you in the car with him .
—Sherry Nelson, Board Member, Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association
Introduction
Lighthouses were born of shipping Trade with Europe and between ports on the Great Lakes . Lighthouses marked hazards, harbors, and coasts They kept ships afloat and saved cargo, crews, and passengers The nation prospered
Everyone loves lighthouses Even here in the Midwest where I live lighthouse restaurants, motels, shops, and monuments in front yards validate this, but real lighthouses are far away .
Like the old barns and silos near my home, lighthouses have mostly outlived their prime . They’ve served out their duty with honor, and they stand now as a testament to bygone times .
Ownership has transferred to nonprofits, cities, counties, national parks, historical societies, or to private parties . But unlike old barns and silos, lighthouses are often well cared for in their dotage—restored, refurbished, and maintained . Often they serve as navigation lights, which are maintained by the US Coast Guard, and sometimes as bed and breakfasts or with museums and giftshops attached . Frequently they’re haunted .
Haunted or not, lighthouses cast a spell on people . They rise above the landscape like flags of a conquering army . They say, “Here I am . Look at me . A ren’t I special?”
And a lighthouse is an amazing thing: a tour de force in structural engineering . Not only are they tall, but some are hundreds of years old . Built when engineering was in its infancy, they’ve stood fast against storms and crashing waves
Hundreds of books have been written about lighthouses and their entourage, not just guidebooks or technical books or history books, but novels and coloring books as well . Even poems
There are lighthouse organizations such as the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association with 1,000 members and the National Maritime Historical Society . The American Lighthouse Foundation is dedicated to saving historic lighthouses and boasts 6,000 followers The US Lighthouse Society publishes its quarterly Keeper’s Log . The Society has 10,000 members and holds to its missions:
Atop Cardiff Hill in full-of-itself Hannibal, Missouri, sits the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse —a tribute to Samuel Clemens who made the town famous. But why a lighthouse and not just a monument? Maybe it’s just wanting to reach up to the heavens.
Boom Island was transformed into a Minneapolis Park celebrating the location of a historic logging boom across the Mississippi River to catch logs floating destined for saw mills downstream. Boom Island Lighthouse is a replica of a lighthouse that never was.
Located in Collingwood, Ontario, this delightful play structure presents itself as a lighthouse. It’s in Sunset Point Park not far from Lake Huron and comes complete with water slide. For lack of a better name, I call it Sunset Point Lighthouse
Assisting lighthouse organizations in their preservation efforts, and supporting lighthouse preservation projects with monetary and nonmonetary assistance .
Websites such as Lighthouse Friends provide history, photos and details for every lighthouse in the US, Puerto Rico, and much of Canada—extant or not . The Lighthouse Digest is a bimonthly magazine providing informative articles about lighthouse history and status
So, what’s the attraction? Why are so many people hooked on lighthouses? More than just a tall monument, the answer is each lighthouse is unique and comes with its own story . Lighthouses aren’t like houses, office buildings, or even barns . They’re different and worthy of exploration—and worthy of preservation for the history they manifest .
In his book Brilliant Beacons, Eric Jay Dolin describes the need for lighthouses:
The sea is a dangerous place, and the greatest dangers loom closest to shore . Although storms imperil mariners wherever they are, they can confidently maneuver their ships on the open ocean without the fear of encountering unseen hazards or running aground . But as ships graze the coast, the risks multiply . That is where jagged reefs, hidden sandbars, towering headlands, and rocky beaches threaten disaster .
Perhaps our greatest connection is the history of lighthouses saving foundering ships as well as their keepers rescuing thousands No doubt the seemingly romantic lives of these keepers themselves also fuel our interest .
Lighthouses ride on the crest of our fascination with the sea . Maybe it’s just in our DNA
They keep alive the magic of the golden age of lighthouses when keepers tended and mariners depended . Their architecture attests to the courage of their builders and to the many lives that have been saved .
The Great Lakes
The Great Lakes form the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world—21 percent of the earth’s potable water . They’ve been called the inland sea because of their rolling waves, sustained winds, strong currents, great depths, and distant horizons . The Great Lakes were carved out as the last glaciers retreated 10,000 years ago and filled with meltwater .
In his book The Living Great Lakes, Michigan native Jerry Dennis puts them in context:
Their ten thousand miles of shoreline border eight states and a Canadian province and are longer than the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States . Their surface area of 95,000 square miles is greater than New York, New Jersey,
White River Lighthouse was first lit in 1876. The Norman Gothic style is similar to Eagle Bluff and Chambers Island plus McGulpin Point, Eagle Harbor, Sand Island, and Passage Island. The light was deactivated in 1960 and sold to Fruitland Township; the museum opened in 1970.
The 1991 Manning Lighthouse was never a lighthouse. Designed by a Traverse City architect, it was funded by the family and friends of Robert Manning, a prominent citizen of Empire, Michigan. Just another example of the immense interest in lighthouses.
The first lighthouse on South Manitou Island was built in 1839, but it fell into disrepair and was replaced in 1858 by a tower atop the new keeper’s quarters. The 1873 South Manitou Island Lighthouse replaced this lighthouse, and a covered walkway connected the tower to the keeper’s dwelling. Deactivated in 1958, the lighthouse was incorporated into the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in 1970.
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island combined .
According to Wayne Sapulski, Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association’s Historian:
Of 366 lighthouses of historical interest on the Great Lakes and the St . Lawrence River as far east as Ogdensburg, New York, 196 are accessible by land Included in that number are the lighthouses on an island where the island is accessible either by a car ferry or a regularly scheduled passenger ferry just for foot traffic .
Some are on islands or rock outcrops and reachable only by boat, but most are active aids to navigation (ATONs) They’re part of an extensive network of buoys, day marks, pier lights, radio beacons, cans, nuns, range lights, and fog signals all supporting trade . Commercial vessels have sailed the lakes since the late 1600s when Le Griffon debarked from Lake Erie and sank in Lake Michigan . Ships carried beaver pelts, explorers, and missionaries . Large freighter birch bark canoes carried furs to trading forts in Montreal . Later on Chicago butchered meat, Wisconsin milk and cheese, Pennsylvania coal, and Minnesota iron ore moved through the lakes . In fact, for much of the 20th Century more goods were shipped into and out of ports on the Great Lakes than in all the West Coast and East Coast ports combined .
The Treaty of Paris, which ended the French and Indian War in 1763, ceded the Great Lakes to the British . W hen the American Revolution ended in 1783, the boundary with Canada was set along and through the Great Lakes . A fter the War of 1812, various treaties demilitarized the lakes and gave free access to American, British, and Canadian ships
The Great Lakes—Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Superior—provide sustenance, work, and recreation for tens of millions of Americans .
Types of Lighthouses
The taxonomy of lighthouses is sometimes helpful in viewing and identifying . Knowing the names may also give a sense of control . Truth is, lighthouses are all quite individual—with the exception of some twins—they each have their own character . There are many outliers which don’t fit into the arbitrary styles shown, but they all have the identifying lantern room up top .
Let’s do some lantern room nomenclature first:
Now that you have the lantern room well in hand, let’s look at the styles:
Cottage Style Lighthouse: small one-story keeper’s house with light on top (Port Washington Lighthouse, Lake Michigan).
Cylindrical or Drum Style Lighthouse: sides of light tower parallel to each other ( Waukegan Harbor Lighthouse, Lake Michigan).
Polygonal Style Lighthouse: Lighthouse towers are sometimes pentagonal, hexagonal or octagonal in plan view (Old Fort Niagara Lighthouse, Lake Ontario).
Poe Style Lighthouse: conical tower often used in lighthouses design by Colonel Orlando Metcalf Poe (Seul Choix Lighthouse, Lake Michigan).
Pyramidal Style Lighthouse: four sides sloping and tapered as a pyramid (Grassy Island Rear Range Lighthouse, Lake Michigan).
Church Style or Schoolhouse Style Lighthouse: light tower centered on gable end of lighthouse, (Sand Point Lighthouse, Lake Superior).
Spider Style Lighthouse: many legs, used often off shore and anchored with screwpiles in sand bottom (Alpena Lighthouse, Lake Huron)
Skeleton Frame Style Lighthouse: structural framework less prone to wind damage supporting the light (La Pointe Lighthouse, Lake Superior).
Sparkplug or Coffee Pot Style Lighthouse: cast iron structure caisson supported (Orient Point Lighthouse, North Atlantic Ocean).
Vase Style Lighthouse: a Poe Style Lighthouse with a slight artistic curve (Kenosha Lighthouse, Lake Michigan).
Fantasized image of Pharos Lighthouse.
Out in the English Channel James Douglass’s 1882 Eddystone Lighthouse is still standing. Smeaton’s 1769 lighthouse stump is at left.
Forerunners
Pharos Lighthouse is by far the Big Daddy of all lighthouses Built in 280 BCE to mark Alexandria Harbor, it was at least 300 feet tall and said to have been designed by the Greek architect Sostratus of Cnidus Pharos withstood all manner of attacks, including Julius Caesar’s marauding armies, until it was finally taken down by earthquakes in the 1300s . The base of this massive tower can still be seen in Alexandria, Egypt, and its remains lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean .
No drawings of Pharos exist, but numerous accounts attest to its size and location It was one of the seven wonders of the world, rivaling the Pyramids of Giza
In more recent times we turn to the Eddystone Light off the coast of Devon in the southwest corner of England . Its 60 tallow candles were lighted in 1698 . A fierce storm toppled the 60-foot tower five years later .
By 1709, John Rudyard, a silk dealer, had rebuilt the tower to a height of 92 feet . It burned to the ground in 1755 One year later, John Smeaton, a talented inventor, began the rebuild using dovetailed stone blocks—no more fire prone wood . His
lighthouse went into service in 1769 and stood for a century . Smeaton went on to design bridges, canals and harbors helping to launch the profession of civil engineering .
By the 1870s the reef supporting Smeaton’s lighthouse had begun to deteriorate and a fourth tower was started by James Douglass and lit in 1882 It stands today alongside the remains of Smeaton’s lighthouse .
Meantime in the New World, the colonies were thriving . Boston wanted to be a world class city, but the harbor posed a challenge for incoming ships . Merchants petitioned the Massachusetts Legislature for a lighthouse, Little Brewster Island was chosen for the site, and in 1716 the first American lighthouse was up and running . During the Revolutionary War, the British blew up the Boston Harbor Lighthouse, but it was restored by 1783 and stands today
First American lighthouse, 1783 Boston Harbor Lighthouse, sits on Little Brewster Island in Massachusetts.
A review of antecedents wouldn’t be complete without mention of the 1764 Sandy Hook Lighthouse, oldest continually operating light in the US . In 1761, merchants urged the acting governor of New York to build a lighthouse on the 300-foot highlands of New Jersey . It was needed to guide ships into the New York harbor A lottery raised enough cash to begin, but another lottery was necessary to complete the rubble stone tower .
The first US light on the Great Lakes, Marblehead Lighthouse, was completed on Lake Erie in 1821 . Built of local limestone to a height of 50 feet, it resides at the entrance to Sandusky Bay on Marblehead Peninsula in Ohio . It is the oldest continually operating lighthouse on the American side of the Great Lakes . [Even before the 1825 Erie Canal linked the Hudson River to Lake Erie, there was considerable shipping of timber and grain from the heartland .]
The 103-foot Sandy Hook Lighthouse in New Jersey is the oldest working lighthouse in the US. It lit the way to the New York Harbor in 1764.
Marblehead Lighthouse has steered ships into Sandusky Harbor on Lake Erie continuously since 1821.
About the Author
Jim Lammers, FAIA, was educated as an architect back when freehand sketching was an integral part of the curriculum . He holds degrees from Columbia University and Iowa State University . In addition to his private practice, Jim taught in the architecture program at the University of Minnesota for 18 years . He currently teaches travel sketching at Marine Mills Folk Art School in Marine on St Croix, Minnesota .
An inveterate world traveler, persistent writer and relentless sketcher, Jim has been published in a number of professional journals and on websites . His drawings have been exhibited at Landmark Center, Hallburg Center for the Arts, Phipps Art Center, and ArtReach His books, Capture the Moment: An A rchitect’s Guide to Travel Sketching, Barns of the St Croix Valley: An Architect’s Sketchbook, and Lighthouses of the Great Lakes: An Architect’s Sketchbook, have been published by ORO Editions .
Jim’s interest in sketching lighthouses began in 2021 when he launched a roadtrip down the Pacific Coast Highway as an escape from the Pandemic . He purchased Jeremy D’Entremont’s Lighthouse Handbook: West Coast . Chasing those lighthouses gave his trip purpose and resulted in this book .
When not absorbed in writing or sketching, Jim enjoys working as arborist on his 100-year-old farmstead .
