Bluff Point Lighthouse: Where women kept the light on

VALCOUR ISLAND | Who doesn't love the lure of a romantic lighthouse? But here, far from the sea, Lake Champlain's historic lighthouses are landlocked and often bypassed. Yet these silent sentinels of a bygone era — when commerce, not recreation, flourished on the lake — beckon modern navigators equipped with GPS and radar. From Crown Point to Point Au Roche, six lighthouses protect boaters from the rocky western shore of the lake, the so-called Adirondack Coast. And across the lake in Vermont, four lighthouses of note still show the way. Making a last stand, of sorts, along Lake Champlain is Bluff Point Light. This Victorian-era lighthouse, on two-mile-long Valcour Island, wears the crown as being the last crewed lighthouse on the lake. The structure was in service between 1874 until 1933 and is the sole lighthouse on Lake Champlain to be on the National Register of Historic Places. Among Bluff Point's "firsts" of "lasts" was the fact that it was the last lighthouses on Lake Champlain to be officially named. Now protected by the Adirondack State Park, it is a must-see museum operated by the Clinton County Historical Association, affiliated with the Adirondack Coast Cultural Alliance. Ladies of the light This lighthouse is of special interest because of its stalwart female lightkeepers, true pioneers in a mostly 19th-century male-dominated profession. Of note was lightkeeper Mary Jane Herwerth's tenure (1881–1902). She shepherded the facility after the death of her husband, Civil War veteran Maj. William Herwerth. He manned the island station from 1876 until 1881. And when the major died of natural causes, while on duty in the lighthouse, Mary Jane officially sat in the commander's chair after years of already working behind the scenes. In 1881, the Plattsburgh Republican reported, "The widow of the late Major Herwerth, the lighthouse keeper on Valcour Island, has recently been appointed to the same office. This is as it should be. Mrs. Herwerth was in charge of the light for a long time previous to her husband's death, and work connected with the office will be just as faithfully done as ever, and this has for years been considered one of the best-kept lighthouses on the lake." Here is the roster of Bluff Point's lighthouse keepers including its three women operators: William C. Wait (1874–1876), William E. Herwerth (1876–1881), Mary Jane Herwerth (1881–1902), Minnie D. Herwerth (1903), William A. Conn (1903–1905), Mary C. Conn (1905), Andrew Nelson (1905–1910), James B. Hawkins (1910–1919), Fred Lemieux (1919–to at least 1921), Thomas Pickup (at least 1925–1929). While some folks popularly refer to this light as the Valcour Island Lighthouse, it is officially known as Bluff Point Light and historians prefer that name. "We've been running a closing photograph of a lighthouse at the bottom of our newsletter, which we have mistakenly identified as the Valcour Lighthouse," according to former U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 15-8 Commander Frank Williams. "It is, correctly, the Bluff Point Lighthouse on Valcour Island. The restored 1874 light is a historic marker for Flotilla 15-8 as it faces directly across the half-mile channel to the Peru Boat Launch where we usually set out on patrol." Restoring the lighthouse Bluff Point Light was built with the official stamp of the U.S. Congress. In 1870, taxpayers footed the $15,000 bill and thus began construction of this light, which stands 90 feet above the lakeshore, constructed of locally quarried bluish-grey limestone. "The grounds also include a wooden shed (which has since collapsed and was removed), a cistern, and a privy. For almost 60 years, the Victorian-style lighthouse and its fifth-order Fresnel lens guided ships through the channel between Valcour Island and New York State...," according to the Clinton County Historical Association. "In 1930, a steel, skeletal tower with an automatic light was erected to replace the manned lighthouse," reports the Lighthouse Friends history of the lighthouse. "The light station and 13 acres of surrounding land were then sold to a private owner. Dr. Adolph Raboff, a dentist from Massachusetts, purchased the property in 1954 and maintained the lighthouse as a summer residence. In the mid-1980s, Dr. Raboff offered the property to the State of New York, which controlled the rest of Valcour Island as part of Adirondack State Park. At the beginning of the negotiations, the state indicated its intention to raze the lighthouse and turn the property into a wilderness area, but Dr. Raboff refused to relinquish the property unless the lighthouse was preserved and made available to the public. A compromise was eventually reached wherein the state would own the lighthouse, and the Clinton County Historical Association would be responsible for maintaining the structure. The state paid $40,000 for the one-and-half-acre parcel, far less than other offers Raboff had received." "Things like the lighthouse are like footprints," said Dr. Raboff's widow Kathleen Raboff at the time. "If you destroy them, you're destroying history." Eventually, Roger and Linda Harwood of the Clinton County Historical Association restored the lighthouse interior and created a series of easy-to-read informational displays about the historic light and its many keepers, according to Helen Nerska, director of the Clinton County Historical Association. In 2014, a major restoration of the lighthouse was funded which included $170,000 from Albany. Restoration work added a new roof, an overall spiffy new paint job, and new doors in the Fresnel lens room. We think lighthouse researcher and author Elinor DeWire must have been thinking of the Bluff Point Light when she wrote, "Lighthouses are not just stone, brick, metal, and glass. There's a human story at every lighthouse..." Editor's note: This is the second of an occasional series about the historic lighthouses of Lake Champlain. Special thanks to Helen Nerska, director of the Clinton County Historical Association. Sources: "Lake Champlain Lighthouses," by George Clifford and Clinton County Historical Association, and the website Lighthouse Friends.

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Bluff Point Lighthouse: Where women kept the light on

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