The best ways to explore northern lighthouses: artifacts within an outdoor museum

By sea or by land, by boat or by van, there are a number of ways to explore New England’s oldest landmarks. Most lighthouses north of Boston are no longer publicly accessible. Thanks to some creative maritime masterminds these historical beauties are still accessible to get up-close and personal.

            “My father started the boat trips in 1969,”said Steve Douglass of a man whose main interest was in discovering if there were whales off the Gloucester shore.  A combination of a love for cetaceans and a dose of optimism created the Cape Ann Harbor tours out of Gloucester, Massachusetts.  “We started out with just touring Gloucester Harbor and then [we thought that] there would be a good bet in that people would want to circle Cape Ann,” Douglass whispered in the dark but buzzing Pleasant Street Tea Company shop tucked away down a side street adjacent to the harbor. His elbows were perched on the table while his neck retracted turtle-like into his bright red hooded sweatshirt as he continued to explain, “At that same time [my father] was interested in discovering if there were whales off shore.”  Thus there came the first whale watch organization out of Gloucester before the Cape Ann Harbor tours ever existed.

It all began with a boat that was bought off a local restaurant owner who originally won the boat on the game show, The Price is Right, and could no longer keep up with its maintenance. Today, Cape Ann Harbor Tours is a long established site seeing company that conducts harbor tours circling Cape Ann. Visitors, tourists, and residents of the North Shore can enjoy private charters, birthday parties, and business outings. The new 40 passenger vessel used for all outings today is a moving museum for Cape Ann Harbor Tour’s most popular offering; the lighthouse cruise.

Established in 1980, the Cape Ann Harbor Tours lighthouse cruise is offered daily at 2:30 PM during the summer months and it circumnavigates six of the Cape Ann lighthouses. All six remain in use for nautical navigation today. Guests are brought up-close and personal to the structures and are guided by a verbal historical narration.

The Boston Harbor Cruise company is also notorious for their lighthouse tour offering. “Our Lighthouse Cruise is very popular,” described Anne Marie Perez, Assistant Manager of the BHC Reservations Department. “There is a huge community of lighthouse fans out there and we have people travel from all over the world to come on our lighthouse cruises.”

Both lighthouse cruises offered by Cape Ann Harbor Tours and Boston Harbor Cruise bring passengers up-close and personal to the oldest pair of operating lighthouses that remain on Cape Ann. “The Thatcher’s Island  Twin lighthouses are known as the eyes of Cape Ann,” mysteriously whispered Douglass by way of explanation.

“Our main attraction for the North Shore Lighthouse Cruise is the Thatcher Island Twin Lighthouses,” said Perez in a brief phone interview. “Thatcher Island is the site of the only still operating twin lighthouses left in the entire country.” Her accent reinforced that this is a lighthouse cruise that departs directly from Boston Hah-bah.

“What’s ironic about the lighthouses on Thatcher’s Island is the granite there,” Douglass informed. “You would expect it to be from Rockport itself, however, through some labor disputes, the granite was actually taken in from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.”

Thatcher’s Island Twin Lighthouses stand 125 feet tall and are visible from 25 miles away. “The two lighthouses were built for triangulation purposes,” Douglass leaned on his elbows and continued to explain. “You line the two lighthouses up while out at sea and make one lighthouse, and then you are on the [correct] course.”

Boston Harbor Cruises offers two different lighthouse vessel tours. One features lighthouses of the South Shore and the second features lighthouses of the North Shore. Unlike the Cape Ann Harbor Tours Lighthouse Cruise, BHC’s North Shore lighthouse cruise lasts a little longer (five hours for one tour).  Similar to Cape Ann Harbor Tours, guests of the cruise are provided with a historical narration by Doug Bingham of the American Lighthouse Foundation. Another trait that distinguishes these two cruises is their schedules of operation. While Cape Ann Harbor Tours offers the lighthouse cruise daily, Boston Harbor Cruises only offers their lighthouse tour every other Saturday between the months of June and October.

The Straight Smith Island light and the Annisquam lighthouse are two other interesting lighthouses featured on the Cape Ann Harbor Tours lighthouse cruise. The Straight Smith Island Light was built in 1836 and has a green flashing light that directs sailors and captains into Rockport Harbor. The Annisquam Lighthouse is the final lighthouse visited on the journey. Built in 1801, it is the only lighthouse on Wigwam Point. “What’s interesting about this lighthouse is that it has a red sector if you are approaching from the Halibut Point area off of Rockport, and if you are seeing that red light, you are in-fact off course,” Douglass explains with raised eye brows. “You need to make sure that you are facing a solid white light as you make your approach into the Annisquam River.”

Those who are looking for a more intimate experience in discovering the lighthouses of the North Shore should seek the Cape Ann Harbor Tours offering. The vessel they use only carries 40 passengers at a time compared to the 150 passenger vessel that the Boston Harbor Cruise lighthouse tour uses. For both the Cape Ann Harbor Tours and Boston Harbor Cruise Lighthouse tour offerings, reservations are highly recommended.

“I always warn people about catching ‘the lighthouse bug’,” explained Jeremy D’Entremont, founder of New England Lighthouse Tours and Lynn Massachusetts native. “It’s a good contagious disease.” The heart and wholesomeness evident in D’Entremont’s voice echoed the 25 year passion he’s had for lighthouses and other elements of maritime life.

            D’Entremont runs a series of a different type of lighthouse tours. He takes his guests by van. The President of the American Lighthouse Foundations and author of nine lighthouse history books provides four different series of lighthouse tours from June to September. Over the past four years, D’Entremont has provided tours for the lighthouses of Portsmouth and Portland (NH) and the Pemaquid Point Light of Maine, with a shopping pit-stop included at L.L. Bean. New this year, D’Entremont is offering lighthouse tours of the Massachusetts North Shore with his Salem and Marblehead lighthouse tour series and the lighthouses of Cape Ann and Newburyport tour series.

“Being in the van and not a boat we’re going to a certain group of lighthouses that can be driven to fairly easily. It is a very different experience,” D’Entremont explained about the difference of a land tour from a sea tour in a lengthy phone conversation.  “I recommend that people do both. Most of the lighthouses in New England, the majority are actually off-shore, so they must be visited by boat—but there are many that you can drive to as well.”

For example, D’Entremont referenced Portland Head Light which has a museum and a keeper’s house. Guests can also venture inside the lighthouse and climb to the top.  “I consider that one of the many highlights of the tour and you can’t do that from boat.” According to D’Entremont there are some lighthouses that are better visited by land than by sea. “It’s an up close and personal type of tour opposed to viewing them by boat.”

But D’Entremont agrees that there are advantages to touring lighthouses by boat as well. “I like to see [lighthouses] from every possible angle. I’ve photographed a lot of lighthouses from land and sea and from the air too—I’ve done a lot of aerial photography… People who are interested in lighthouses should try to do both types of tours. ”

The 2011 season will mark D’Entremont’s fourth year of running the lighthouse tours via van. Similar to the lighthouse cruises offered by Boston Harbor Cruises and Cape Ann Lighthouse Tours, the typical demographic for guests are middle-aged and older ladies and gentlemen. Although D’Entremont does not keep records of statistical numbers and percentages of what types of people are seeking his tour, he has found one particular group of people who tour with him most often.

“I always get a lot of people from Texas every year,” D’Entremont laughed. “I’ve had more people from Texas than I’ve had from New England. I guess a lot of Texans like to come to New England for vacations.” D’Entremont has had one particular mother and daughter pair who have been repeat customers. They are from Houston.

Guests of D’Entremont’s van tours mostly find him through his website on the internet. “My site comes up pretty high in Google” stated D’Entremont by way of explanation. “I used to spend a lot of money on advertising when I first started, but I found that that didn’t pay off for me. No body found me that way.” D’Entremont also uses social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook to promote his business.

No matter which van tour guests pursue, each of the four tour series last a full eight-hour day. For all tours, the van departs at 8:30 or 9:00 AM (depending on which tour) from the Hanover Street Garage in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and returns at 6:00 PM. “I’d say [the 8 hours] usually fly by,” D’Entremont laughed, “Usually.” D’Entremont can’t remember giving a tour that seemed like it was dragging personally. He hopes that is true for his passengers as well.

“You’re never on the road for more than an hour at one time and there’s usually a lot of

conversation” explained D’Entremont.  The conversations mostly surround the lighthouses viewed on the tour--but not always. “I just like to chat with people and see where they’re from and what they are interested in. I point out other things besides lighthouses too. I don’t want to overwhelm people with lighthouse information. So I try not to throw facts at people.”

D’Entremont understands that fact-overhaul can get boring fast. He will usually substitute the dates and the hard facts about the lighthouses for the human interest stories involving these lighthouses. For example, the stories about the keepers and their families. “I mean that’s what brings it all alive. I mean the structures are great, but it’s the people that bring it alive” said D’Entremont.

“I’ve had tours in the pouring rain” D’Enremont admits, “where people might not want to stay outside as much at some of the stops.” He strategically will fix this problem when it rarely occurs by throwing in some extra stops at some interesting shops. “You know, whatever or wherever people might be interested in.”

This April, D’Entremont is teaming up with Ron Kolak, founder of New England Ghost Project and co-author of Ghost Chronicles and A Ghost Day. Later this month they will be presenting their multimedia presentation at an event called: “Dining with the Dead: Haunted Lighthouses of New England” April 30. The presentation, paired with a dinner at Kittery Point, Maine’s restaurant Captain and Patty’s, will tell the stories and legends of New England’s haunted lighthouses. Some of the featured lighthouses will include Sequin Island, where lives a piano-playing ghost, and Owls Head which has been named America’s most haunted lighthouse.

D’Entremont will also be offering two series of ghost hunt cruises in July and September, departing from Rye, New Hampshire. The tours will visit the mentioned lighthouses as well as the Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse (New Castle, NH), the abandoned prison at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and Whaleback Lighthouse. The cruise will not dock at any of these sites.

By sea and by land, by boat and by van, there are multiple ways to explore the country’s oldest landmarks North of Boston. On the North Shore and beyond Cape Ann Harbor Tours, Boston Harbor Cruises, and New England Lighthouse Tours allow guests the access to get up-close and personal to these beautiful but sometimes paranormal structures.

The one-table restaurant: A new use for an old lighthouse (2/13/11)

Forget the typical French-fancy-swanky dining scene this Valentine’s Day. Lose the noise of other couples chattering their in-the-minute love confessions. Escape the cling and clapping of a clichéd proposal. Create a new cliché in the clouds dining in the Newburyport Rear Range Lighthouse. “This is the only place in the world that you can dine at the top of a lighthouse tower” said Jay Highland, President and founder of the Lighthouse Preservation Society.

Couples or creative fiancé-to-be-masterminds can choose from any of the local Newburyport restaurants to cater their dinner at this single-table restaurant. A dinner reservation for the Newburyport Rear Range Lighthouse may be the most competitive reservation to make for Valentine’s Day; it might just even be the most difficult reservation to make in the world. Fortunately, this lighthouse is now open for dinner or lunch all year round. Anyone is welcome to dine, from lovers, to friends, mothers and daughters or even politicians. 

Looking up through the stairwell at the Newburyport Rear Range Lighthouse

            While it may seem like a physically difficult process to serve the food, Highland confidently explained that they have a system down-pact. The quality of food is not sacrificed. It is exclusively delicious. “By the time we get [the food] up here it’s maybe five or ten minutes from the time it comes off the grill, so it works. People are happy. We do have a microwave downstairs just in case people aren’t happy, but we’ve never had to use it.”

After guests place their order, it only takes a half an hour to receive the meal. The dinner or lunch is generally broken up into three courses. “You have all evening to slowly dine, and we typically break it up into at least three courses so people will have the opportunity to take their time,” says Highland, “and there’s really only so much we can carry up here at once anyhow.” With a laugh Highland explained that they are forced to only bring up a little bit of food at a time, due to the tight space.

“[The wait staff] enjoys doing this because everybody is always happy” said Highland. The wait-staffer and guests always leave with a “Cheshire-cat grin” said Highland by way of explanation.

Another common emotion that Highland has witnessed is fear. The sixty foot climb to the top has worried a lot of guests in the past. “It’s pretty much straight up, especially at the part where you have to climb up the steel ladder and through the hatch. The staircase is not the typical spiral staircase that you often find in lighthouses. The stairs are squared, so they are still kind of spiral but they are squared off at each end. And there is a fairly narrow latch at the end. You’d really have to work at falling at a distance because the walls are close enough that you’d always catch yourself.”

Highland assures that the tower is actually very safe. “You have to get used to the climb, I will say that. It’s good exercise. I threw away my Stairmaster when I got this job,” Highland laughed.

It is probably even one of the safest places to be during a lightning storm. One of the first installments in the lighthouse renovation process was a lightning rod. “So you’re actually in one of the safer places despite the fact that we are in the tallest building around here and you are close to the water as well. But the fact is, is that you are basically in a metal cage here, so if you’ve ever been to the museum of science, you know what I’m talking about” Highland explained.

Fear aside, Highland has encountered, firsthand, more romance and emotion than any Las Vegas drive-through wedding chapel. In at least one circumstance, he was a little too close for comfort.

“Well I remember this one time.” Highland paused to laugh, “It’s interesting with the proposals because there’s so many of them up here. Usually people fall into a couple different categories,” Highland laughed a little more now. “First of all, some of the guys are really nervous. I remember one time I was walking up behind this couple, and they were coming right up the ladder. As soon as he got up here, as I was trying to get up here myself, he was down on his knee immediately,” Highland chuckled even more now. “All because he just wanted to get it over with. And here I was, awkwardly standing behind them like, ‘why am I here? This is supposed to be a private moment you know?’ He was just so nervous that he spurted out the question as soon as he touched the floor up here. He was really happy—really relieved to get it over with.”

Highland explained that there have been a number of not-so-awkward proposals in the light as well. He introduced me to the Keeper’s Log, where guests have documented their experiences eating dinner in the light. I held the hard-cover journal in my hands, as Highland described how he enjoyed reading it from time to time himself. “There are a number of stories in there that are simply fascinating,” he said as my fingers skimmed the pen tip dented pages. He continued to say that tears are easily generated from reading the log—an understandable statement at that.

“It’s great reading material for people that are up here, you know, to kill time or whatever. Some people wonder how you can spend six hours up here, but there is a way. It’s really kind of timeless up here. You really do lose track of time” said Highland.

Highland passionately explained how you can see the outside light change as the sun goes down and as the moon comes up. “It is really wonderful. Nobody is rushing you, nobody is waiting for your seat, you know. Waiting for you to get out of the restaurant or whatever, it is your space. You feel like you are on top of the world up here.”

Guests of the lighthouse can see all over downtown Newburyport, up and down the Merrimack River, and approximately 20 miles out to where the ocean meets the sky. Only one, single table stands in the loft of the lighthouse. A panoramic glass window unveils the white coasts of Plum Island and Salisbury beach. The glass dinner table has an interchangeable pattern, depending on the weather outside the adjacent glass window. Some days it reflects the bright blue sky, other times the pattern moves reflecting the passing clouds, and some nights the table reflects the stars. Anchoring the bare, glass, table rests a pair of shell-shaped salt and pepper shakers and a simple, white candle. A heater, that looks more like an air-conditioner hums softly while warming the loft during the colder months.  

This innovative dining experience comes from the original thoughts of Highland himself. After the lighthouse was decommissioned in 1961, the only thing it was used for was the office space of a man named David Hall. In talking with Highland, Hall once told him about how great it was to eat his lunch up there. And occasionally, Hall would allow some of his friends who were dating at the time to come up and use the light at night. He would leave a small basket of cheese and wine downstairs, and they would really enjoy their time up there. That’s when the light went on for Highland. “I said, you know something? That sounds like a great idea” exclaimed Highland.  “So if you let me run with it, we’ll try doing dinners up here, and raise some money for these two towers. That was in 1999 and the rest is history.”

In front of the Newburyport Rear Range Light is the Front Range Light, which today remains unused. The Rear Range Light, which is just as old but has been revived, has been named by Phantom Gourmet the most romantic and exclusive dining destination in all of New England. “It’s become very popular for special events,” explained Highland. “We’ve had a lot of engagements up here… there’s been a lot of birthdays and anniversaries and such. It’s a very romantic location with a stunning view.”

This inimitable dining opportunity is also a way in which the Lighthouse Preservation Society raises money for the up keeping of this and other regional lighthouses. “This has been a very successful project in terms of bringing in a very good revenue source, and in an unusual sort of place for doing so,” explains Highland, “and it’s just totally unique. That’s one of the reasons why it has really taken off. We found our niche.”

With a grin burning my cheeks, Highland could tell from my gaze that I was eager to see more. He pointed to a little square door down to the left of where he sat. “You can go out on the catwalk if you’d like,” Highland proposed. As if I were the main character of Alice in Wonderland, I crouched down beside the booth and ungracefully slid through the tiny door. The door was so small that I wondered how Highland could even get out their himself. It was a typical New England Sunday, where the weather changes every five minutes. I looked up at the clouds coasting over above, and the reflection of the sun rays retracting on the water. I gripped the metal bar at my waist, and slowly made my way, full-circle, around the catwalk.

I thought of one of the stories Highland had just told me about a couple who came here for dinner during a rainstorm. The fiancé-to-be had expressed his weather concerns to Highland just days before their reservation date. Highland insisted that the couple did not need to reschedule their reservation, despite the lousy weather forecast. Convinced, they still came even with the rain. But when the rain stopped and the sun came out, a handsome, fully-arched rainbow connected the shores of Salisbury Beach and Plum Island. “Neither one of them had seen a full rainbow before—it was like a sign from God,” Highland smiled.

Highland’s twinkly eyes filled me with a sense of optimism that one day I’d be back here. Not for an interview, but in an intimate time, in warmer climes. I’d have sun-kissed shoulders.  The small, white candles on the walls would be lit, and I’d be proposed to by Mr. Right.

So how does one go about making a reservation at the top of a lighthouse? Often times, reservations must be booked well in advance; sometimes half a year to a year out from the date you intend to dine. Originally, the light was only open in the warmer months. Within the last two years, a heating system was installed at the top and reservations are now available for any season.  

            The cost is 350 dollars to rent the building and a private wait-staffer for the evening. For the most part, the entire evening is yours. Reservations will reserve guests a six hour time block. Generally it is a five o’clock to eleven o’clock slot, but in special circumstances the times can be altered a few hours later or earlier. “You can also do a day time lunch up here and you can have [the lighthouse] all day,” explained Highland.  “And that’s from ten o’clock to four o’clock generally.”

The $350 fee does not include the food itself. “You just pay the restaurant directly. It’s the same as being at the restaurant pretty much, same prices, same menu. And it’s really not that bad in terms of expense. Typically most couples can get a nice dinner for under a hundred dollars.” The only exception is that alcohol is not included for insurance reasons, but the policy is B.Y.O.B. “That works out for people because you actually save money that way,” explained Highland.

“Valentine’s day is already booked” Highland chuckled. Highland, dressed like a ship captain, remained vague as to who the lucky couple would be this year to dine at the top of the light on Valentine’s Day. He did admit however that politician Mitt Romney had recently attended the lighthouse for lunch.

            There is a strategy for those who missed out on the romantic holiday reservation this year, and have maybe already missed out on making a reservation for next Valentine’s Day. “We still have plenty of openings not only for that week, but also for the rest of the month and the rest of the year,” explained Highland. “A lot of people will get gift certificates, at Valentine’s Day and that will basically buy a dinner up here for a date during the nicer months.”