THE TM 911 Franklin Street Weekly Newspaper Michigan City, IN 46360 Volume 23, Number 19 Thursday, May 17, 2007 Mayor to Inaugurate New Museum Staircase by Wm. F. Keefe In line with its standard practice, Mich- igan City’s Old Lighthouse Museum has taken new steps to enhance its already thoroughbred image. Sixteen steps, in fact. Thanks to the Hoosier Lighthousing Club, the museum has added a circular staircase that in the future will enable visitors to ascend to the museum’s crown- ing architectural feature, the rooftop Lan- tern Room. At one time in the not-so-long ago, an older Lantern Room accommodat- ed a 5th order Fresnel lens-equipped light that actually beamed its signal to ships passing or approaching on Lake Michi- gan. The beam was visible at an estimat- ed distance of 15 miles. The 16-step steel and wood staircase will guide visitors to unsurpassed views of Michigan City’s numerous civic land- marks, the course of Trail Creek, and the lakefront itself. The rooftop Lantern Room is ready for visitors. Photo by Janet Baines Operated for the past 32 years by the Michi- gan City Historical Society, the museum will offi cially inaugurate the new staircase with an open house on Sunday, May 27 between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. The public will be invited during those hours at no charge. Mayor Charles Oberlie has indicated that he will attend the historic occasion and make the fi rst “offi cial” climb to the light tower, accord- ing to Jackie Glidden, the museum’s director. For the Historical Society, the staircase repre- sents the fulfi llment of a long-cherished dream. “It was there, a key part of the old lighthouse, and we couldn’t get to it,” she noted. “Now we expect that the staircase and view will spark new interest in the museum and its hundreds of historic treasures.” The view from the top--the fl oor of the museum’s Lantern Room--provides an idea of the expert engineering that went into the circular staircase. (Keefe Photo) Museum Continued on Page 2 THE Page 2 May 17, 2007 THE 911 Franklin Street • Michigan City, IN 46360 219/879-0088 • FAX 219/879-8070 In Case Of Emergency, Dial e-mail: News/Articles - [email protected] email: Classifieds - [email protected] http://www.thebeacher.com/ PRINTED WITH Published and Printed by TM Trademark of American Soybean Association THE BEACHER BUSINESS PRINTERS Delivered weekly, free of charge to Birch Tree Farms, Duneland Beach, Grand Beach, Hidden 911 Shores, Long Beach, Michiana Shores, Michiana MI and Shoreland Hills. The Beacher is also Subscription Rates delivered to public places in Michigan City, New Buffalo, LaPorte and Sheridan Beach. 1 year $28 6 months $16 3 months $10 1 month $5 Visitors may also notice some of the additional im- provements made by members of the Lighthousing Club in recent days and months. On the weekend of May 5 and 6, for example, more than 20 volunteers from the club gathered at the museum to perform cleanup and landscaping chores, remove the now- obsolete fl ourescent lights from the Lantern Room, and help out in other ways. Having “adopted” the Michigan City Museum, ac- cording to Paul L. Brady, the club’s former president and current “offi cial photographer,” the Lighthous- ing Club members decided initially that they want- ed to help with changes and improvements inside and outside the museum walls. The adoption took place in 2001, about the time the club formalized its One of the more spectacular of the many views offered by the Old Lighthouse Museum’s Lantern Room encompasses name and goals. the upstream stretch of Trail Creek. “Three times a year, club members who have the Museum Continued from Page 1 time come here to Michigan City to work on the mu- Other guests of honor at the open house will in- seum,” Brady said. “We make it an outing. We usu- clude “some” members of the Hoosier Lighthousing ally get here in April, October, and December. Club, an association of Great Lakes region residents with special interest in lighthouses. Living as far from Lake Michigan as St. Louis, the club members selected the Old Lighthouse Museum as the recipi- ent of its help for a particular reason: “They wanted to see what keeper Harriet Colfax experienced and saw all those many years when she went up to the Lantern Room every day to turn on the ‘light’,” explained Mrs. Glidden. A cousin of Schuyler Colfax, vice president under President Ulysses S. Grant, Harriet Colfax served as keeper of the Michigan City light for 43 years. During part of that time she also tended the East Pier light. She retired in 1904 at the age of 80. One Step at a Time To purchase the circular staircase for donation to the Old Lighthouse Museum, the Lighthousing Michigan resident Mary Meyer takes a break from her hands-on work on fl owers that adorn the front yard of the Old Lighthouse Museum in Club accepted money gifts from members desiring Michigan City. Mary was one of the more than 20 members of the Hoosier to pay for a single step. The staircase fund grew, as Lighthousing Club who worked on the grounds and the museum on the a result, one step at a time. weekend of May 5-6. (Keefe photos) The name of each member who “bought” a step “Most of the Christmas decorations now are our stands on a separate small plaque or nameplate on handiwork,” he said. “We were here on May 5 and 6 each stair. There are 16 names. Adding ingenuity because of bad weather in April. We brought mulch, to generosity, the club has also created an enclosed garden tools, and other tools so that we could fi nish area at the base of the staircase for the display of the work on the tower. sketches of the Michigan City harbor. “The Lantern Room didn’t just get new lights “Visitors will be able to visualize the changes that today. It also received new trim and new indirect the harbor has undergone over the years,” said Mrs. lighting. On that whole project, including the stair- Glidden. case, the club spent about $5,000.” THE May 17, 2007 Page 3 Open ‘til 6 p.m. Evenings www.littlehousefashions.comElegant Apparel for the [email protected] Conscious Woman Women’s Apparel Girl’s Day Out! Just Another Excuse Nothing is overlooked, nothing is ignored as the volunteers from the to Shop! Hoosier Lighthousing Club go through their clean-up, paint-up, plant-up chores in the yard of the Old Lighthouse Museum. “Lighthousing Club members represent eight dif- Great ferent states,” Brady said. On the weekend of May 5 and 6 the volunteer workers came from Michigan, Prizes! Missouri, and Ohio. “Club members__some of them lighthouse model makers__are interested in light- houses in any part of the world. But we’ve adopted Hourly only the Old Lighthouse Museum so far.” Drawings A resident of Indianapolis, Brady feels at home in Michigan City. “I had an aunt who lived in St. Joe Friday, May 18th when I was a kid. We would visit her in the sum- & mer.” 25% off “Everything’s a Gift” Saturday, May 19th Dream-saving contributions to the museum’s op- erations have arrived steadily over the years, ac- cording to Mrs. Glidden. “Everything here is donat- Select Vera Bradley ed,” she notes. “Everything has a story to tell.” The Marquette Questers stand at the epicenter of Pendleton one of the stories. Declared government-surplus in 1960, the mu- Bleyle seum building was purchased by Michigan City in 1963 for historical use. With the Historical Society then leasing the structure and planning to turn it Sleepwear into a museum, the local Marquette Questers chap- ter offered needed help. Spring Coats As programmed by the Historical Society, the help took the form of the Lantern Room of today. The restoration, completed in 1973, was carried out Crabtree & Evelyn according to the building’s original specifi cations of 1858. The SAK Purses Most of the funding came from the Questers, an international research organization with special Blue Willi's interest in antiques and historic preservation. As Mrs. Glidden comments, “The new Lantern Room was in place when the museum was offi cially dedi- Foxcraft Blouses cated and opened to the public in June, 1973.” A year later the museum’s name appeared on the and MUCH More! National Register of Historic Places. The separate 409409 Alexander Alexander Street Street, LaPorte,LaPorte, IN IN 326-8602326-8602 Michigan City East Pierhead Light Tower and El- On Hwy 35 - 5 Blocks South of Lincolnway evated Walk “made it” to the Register in 1988. TurnTurn Rightright on AlexanderAlexander Monday-FridayMonday - Friday 10 am 9:30 to 6 topm 7 Saturday Saturday 9:30 9:30 am to to 5 5 pm Museum Continued on Page 4 THE Page 4 May 17, 2007 “We had hoped to open the staircase to the pub- lic before now,” said Mrs. Glidden. “But the damage was serious. Our friends in the Lighthousing Club just fi nished the repairs and cleanup on May 5, Sat- urday. “Best of all, the light tower looks like new, and new lights have been installed.” With the museum wearing its prettiest face, the Historical Society has invited to the open house sev- eral organizations whose members have been spe- cial friends of the museum in past years. The groups Paul Brady of the Hoosier Lighthousing Club discusses progress by include the museum’s docents, the men and women club members on work undertaken inside and outside the of the Coast Guard station, offi cials of the Port Au- Old Lighthouse Museum.