I've likely kept hundreds -- well, maybe dozens -- more likely a few -- hopefully a couple -- of people wondering all week what and where the "Mystery Lighthouse" from last week was.
Well, the answer is in the title of the post, and also here: it's the Grosse Point Lighthouse in Evanston, Illinois, a lighthouse that looks somewhat like a big house. That's because there's a big house in front of it.
Surprisingly, even though I've been to Chicago several times, and even in the suburban area on occasion, I never knew this lighthouse existed.
But now I do. And it's a good one, even on the National Register of Historic Places, the first ever lighthouse so designated west of the Atlantic Ocean. And if you have ever visited Northwestern University, you have been very close to it.
It has its own Web site: Grosse Point Lighthouse
Vital stats:
Built in 1873, due to shipwrecks occurring on the northern approach to Chicago
The tower height is 113 feet.
The optics? Well, let me quote: "The illuminating optic at the top of the tower is a second order Fresnel lens, the largest type of optic used on the Great Lakes and one of only five ever installed in lighthouses there. The beam of light from this optic could be seen up to 21 miles over the lake in good atmospheric conditions, and it served both to warn ships of shallow waters around the point and to guide the way into the Port of Chicago."
The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1934.
So I grabbed more than my usual quota of pictures and a video. Great views in the video (particularly at about the 1:20 mark), though the music is kind of hokey.
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| by Peg Donnellan |
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