Leaving city behind for a bright light, water view

LIGHT FARE: Tim Swigor, of Marblehead, Mass., has made Rose Island lighthouse-keeping a family vacation tradition. / COURTESY CHAD SWIGOR
LIGHT FARE: Tim Swigor, of Marblehead, Mass., has made Rose Island lighthouse-keeping a family vacation tradition. / COURTESY CHAD SWIGOR

The mystique of being a lighthouse keeper settled into Nick Korstad’s dreams when he was 7 years old and visited a lighthouse on the Oregon coast. The vision grew clearer a few years later when his family moved from Portland to the town of Sequim, Wash., and he went on a tour of a nearby lighthouse. His first visit turned into hundreds of lighthouse visits.
When the Borden Flats Lighthouse, a mere 900 feet offshore in Fall River, at the mouth of the Taunton River, was put up for sale by the U.S. General Services Administration, he jumped at the chance to own it. Korstad paid $56,000 in a 2010 public auction for the cast-iron, caisson-style lighthouse built in 1881.
With his new piece of water-based real estate, he did what any passionate lighthouse lover would do – he built on his 12 years of working in hospitality with Marriott, developed a plan to restore the lighthouse to make it available as lodging for overnight visitors, and took a leap.
“I quit my job, sold everything and came here to run the lighthouse,” said Korstad. “I rented a condo onshore. For me it works perfectly. I like working for myself and this is what I wanted to do. It provides enough money for me to live on and keep up the lighthouse. They’re very expensive to maintain.”
It took him three years to get the Borden Flats Lighthouse in shape for overnight guests. He spends the night there himself about four days a month to make sure everything is working. He designed and maintains his own website and doesn’t need to advertise.
“Lighthouses attract a lot of people,” he said.
Tours are available by appointment from May through October for $20 a person.
Summer 2013 was the trial season for overnight visitors, with the cost ranging from $299 to $375 per night, with weekends and holidays at the higher end.
The bedroom is on the fifth level, closest to the light. There are levels for relaxing or watching TV. One level is a kitchen. “Last summer went off amazingly well,” Korstad said. “In two-and-a-half months, we had about 30 overnight guests and 400 people on tours. We had people from New Mexico, North Dakota and almost every state.
“So far, for this summer, we’ve had 800 email inquiries,” he said. “A lot of people are visiting the area and just want to stay in the lighthouse for one night to celebrate an anniversary or birthday.”
The maximum occupancy is two guests and they have to be at least 18.
Newport’s Rose Island Lighthouse offers overnight and weekly stays. The nonprofit Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation makes it clear on its website that the facility is “not an inn, not a B&B, but an operating lighthouse where you can become the keeper.”
Guests can stay overnight in the museum on the first floor, which has two bedrooms, or stay for a night or a week in the keeper’s quarters on the second floor, with keeper responsibilities.
Rates for the museum lodging range from $100 per room during the winter season to $250 per room on holidays. Keeper program fees range from $225 per night to $1,000 to $2,300 per week, which include daily chores.
Tim Swigor, of Marblehead, Mass., has made Rose Island lighthouse-keeping a family vacation tradition. Swigor comes with his two sons, and they are joined by his parents from Syracuse, N.Y. They will spend their 10th consecutive summer at Rose Island Lighthouse in July.
“It started when I got a divorce and was looking for a fun thing to do with the boys. We started staying for a week at the lighthouse when Chad was 5 and Cameron was 9,” said Swigor. “Now they’re 15 and 19 and we all enjoy it. There are a lot boats and my dad enjoys watching them. We play cards. We listen to the Red Sox games on the radio.
“We started the Rose Island Wiffle ball league. Lots of times there are other families with kids who come to stay downstairs, so the kids get together and play Wiffle ball,” said Swigor. “After 4 o’clock, the boat stops running to the island, so whoever is there, we often cook dinner on the grill,” said Swigor. “The keeper’s apartment has a small propane gas stove, a microwave and a small refrigerator, so we bring our supplies and try not to leave the island for the entire week.”
A lighthouse stay in Rhode Island is a popular vacation experience, said Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation Executive Director David McCurdy.
“Weekends are pretty much booked for the summer,” said McCurdy. “We had someone come for a while who was stationed in Antarctica. We’ve had people come from New Zealand.”
Many overnight or weeklong guests are from New England and New York.
“We’ve had one group come for New Year’s and we had to take them out on the boat to the island in a storm,” said McCurdy. “We’ve had a group of Wall Street investors. We have an emergency room doctor from Texas who’s been coming for a week for about eight years.”
Drinking water has to be brought to the island.
“There’s no fresh water. We collect rainwater. It runs down the gutters into a cistern in the basement,” said McCurdy. “One of the jobs of the lighthouse keeper is to monitor the water collection and the cistern, which … holds 3,000 gallons of water.” The water is treated with chlorine and is used for washing.
One of the jobs of the lighthouse keeper is to make sure the batteries that power the light are working. The keeper also raises the flag in the morning and takes it down at sunset.
Guests can usually connect to the busy world on land by smartphone, if they feel compelled, said McCurdy. But many people come specifically to reconnect to the natural beauty of the sea and sky and the rhythms of nature.
“There’s no TV, no Wi-Fi,” said McCurdy. “It’s an eco-vacation.” •

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