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Greens Ledge Lighthouse off Norwalk, Conn. July 6, 2022.

Brendan and Christine McGee of The Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society stand on the dock waiting to greet visitor arriving for a tour of Greens Ledge Lighthouse, in Norwalk, Conn. July 6, 2022.

Capt. Eva Van Camp, Commanding Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Long Island Sector stands at the top of Greens Ledge Lighthouse during a tour in Norwalk, Conn. July 6, 2022.

Capt. Eva Van Camp, Commanding Officer of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Long Island Sector stands at the top of Greens Ledge Lighthouse during a tour in Norwalk, Conn. July 6, 2022.

The kitchen inside Greens Ledge Lighthouse, in Norwalk, Conn. July 6, 2022.

Members of The Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society lead a tour inside Greens Ledge Lighthouse, in Norwalk, Conn. July 6, 2022.

Sleeping quarters inside Greens Ledge Lighthouse, in Norwalk, Conn. July 6, 2022.

Alex Pettee, left, President of The Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society, speaks with U.S. Rep. Jim Himes next to the newly updated LED signal beacon inside Greens Ledge Lighthouse, in Norwalk, Conn. July 6, 2022.

A sailboat sails past Greens Ledge Lighthouse off Norwalk, Conn. July 6, 2022.

Brendan and Christine McGee of The Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society stand on the dock waiting to greet visitor arriving for a tour of Greens Ledge Lighthouse, in Norwalk, Conn. July 6, 2022.

NORWALK — Brendan McGee believed he could one day own a lighthouse. Tim Pettee didn’t even know lighthouses went up for sale.

In 2016, McGee had his dream fulfilled when Pettee bought the Greens Ledge Light and the two men partnered to restore the beacon leading into Norwalk Harbor.

“We were out in our boat, doing our typical circle around Greens Ledge when my 16-year-old daughter said, ‘The lighthouse is for sale,’” Pettee said. “I told her, ‘No, no, they don’t sell lighthouses.’”

Pettee did some research with his son Alex, who works in real estate, and found out the U.S. government was auctioning off the beacon that sits a mile south of Rowayton. He won the public auction with a bid of $150,000 and partnered with McGee to start restoration and preservation efforts.

“Relative to other lighthouse transactions, it was a great deal,” Pettee said, comparing his purchase with the $235,000 sale of Peck Ledge Light in Norwalk and the $325,000 sale of Penfield Reef Light in Fairfield around the same time.

Pettee, McGee, Alex Pettee and former resident Shannon Holloway formed the non-profit Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society. The Pettee family donated the lighthouse to the preservation society.

Over the past six years, the preservation society organized a five-phase capital campaign and raised $2 million to fully restore Greens Ledge Light which the National Register of Historic Places originally listed as “deteriorated.”

“We were one step above ‘ruins,’” Pettee said. “It was in bad, bad shape.”

Greens Ledge Light went into service in 1902. Built with no riprap (large rocks) to protect it, the lighthouse’s foundation took a brutal beating from the strong storms in the 1930s and the Long Island Sound freeze in the winter. It caused the lighthouse to settle on the seafloor at about a 4 degree angle.

“It’s hard to see with the naked eye. When I’m giving tours, I bring a golf ball, and it rolls on the floor. Even with the new floors, it rolls quickly to the side,” Pettee said. “We could have brought in tower lifts to correct for the floor, but we built it with the list (angle).”

In 1933, more than 30,000 tons of rocks from the excavation of Radio City Music Hall were added to create the riprap foundation.

The restoration team started by addressing the foundation, which hadn’t received much maintenance since the riprap installation. Work to secure the foundation took two years and cost more than $600,000. The next phase was restoring the lighthouse’s exterior including a gumball red paint job before moving to the interior.

“Local kids would go out there. It was graffiti ridden. There was asbestos, lead paint. That’s what we found after the society had bought it,” Pettee said. “Greens Ledge today is one of the top 10 — and I’m bragging — one of top 10 (lighthouse) restorations in the country.”

Over the July 4 weekend, the preservation society held a grand opening and hosted its major donors, many of whom can see Greens Ledge from their Norwalk or Darien shoreline homes. The lighthouse can accommodate about 50 people and has seven levels that include a kitchen, two bedrooms, a bathroom, a watch room, a lookout and the lantern room.

The U.S. Coast Guard continues to operate the lighthouse as a federal aid to nativation and makes quarterly maintenance checks on the beacon and foghorn.

The preservation society has designated the lower level as the Tombrose Research and Education Center in honor of Peter and Ann Tombrose. A generous grant from their foundation will go toward environmental monitoring and educational activities at the lighthouse. The society is in discussions with the Maritime Aquarium about ways to partner on those efforts.

“Research, education and environmental monitoring, that’s how we see this thing staying alive for the next 100 years,” McGee said. The next 100 years is phase five of the project. “We want this to be a viable, community asset for all things Long Island, and it’s got historical aspects as well.”

All the lighthouse utilities run completely off the grid. The U.S. Coast Guard installed solar panels in the 1990s to power the light and foghorn. The preservation society updated the system with smaller panels that hold more power and installed a desalination system that converts seawater from the Long Island Sound into fresh water.

“Better than any Poland Spring bottle you can buy,” McGee said.

Pettee added, “We want to make sure that Greens Ledge not only continues to be an icon but an icon of sustainability and environment education.”

The lighthouse has multiple water quality monitoring systems, and the group plans to bolster its power sources with the addition of wind and tide turbines. An osprey cam is currently monitoring a pair of the sea hawks, and McGee said he wants to add an underwater drone to observe the sound’s marine life.

Public tours to Greens Ledge are not yet available. Pettee said he hopes to have some running by the end of the year but “definitely in 2023.” The preservation society is also working with the aquarium and other local charter organizations on providing the transportation.

“We’re in the lighthouse business. There are plenty of local organizations that can handle it,” Pettee said.

The Greens Ledge Light Preservation Society has launched its next capital campaign to raise $500,000 for its educational classroom. To donate or to learn more about the Greens Ledge Light, visit the preservation society’s website at savegreensledge.org.

The lighthouse also has its own Instagram page @savegreensledge.

I'm the education reporter for The Hour. I'm a native of Ohio and a graduate of Quinnipiac University. I wrote for my hometown newspaper in Wooster, Ohio for five years, winning several Ohio Associated Press Media Editors' awards, and previously worked as an entertainment reporter for multiple outlets in New York City. I enjoy spending time at the beach, watching crime dramas, and rooting for the New York Mets.