The Presque Isle Lighthouse is getting a facelift. Here's what visitors can look forward to

The interior of the Presque Isle Lighthouse is getting a $70,000 facelift.

Not since it was built in 1872 has the Presque Isle Lighthouse, 301 Peninsula Drive in Millcreek Township, undergone extensive interior restoration.

Previous restoration efforts have focused on the exterior of the lighthouse and its grounds. Now, Emily Butler believes it's time to turn attention to the inside.

"We’re also hoping in the coming year to expand upon our exhibit design and interpretation of the inside, so we really wanted to have that fresh, clean slate," Butler, executive director of the Presque Isle Light Station, said. "And it’s our mission as an organization to preserve the structure."

The Presque Isle Light Station board wants to preserve the lighthouse to what Butler referred to as the "period of significance," or 1900 to 1920 when Andrew Shaw Jr., the light station's longest-tenured lightkeeper, kept watch.

"We‘re hoping that when people come and see the restoration, they’ll have a better idea of what it was like when the lightkeepers lived here," Butler said. "So we’re blending that sort of traditional historic house museum with also modern exhibits."

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The restoration is expected to be finished by the middle of April before the lighthouse's touring season, which sees nearly 14,000 visitors, begins, Butler said.

Uncovering history

To Butler's surprise, the project has uncovered aspects of the lighthouse that haven't been seen since the lighthouse was built.

"Every surface we’re looking at has basically been revealed and restored, it was all there before," Butler said.

A significant portion of the restoration included resurfacing all of the walls with a traditional wood lathe, two-coat plaster system.

"We actually left a piece of one of the walls open so you could see how historical things are constructed, and you can see the original wood lathe behind and how the plaster is oozing through the wood and holding it together," Butler said.

All of the non-original flooring, which was compiled of two subfloors, hardwood tiles and vinyl flooring, was also removed. Once gone it revealed the original wood flooring that's in the process of being sanded down.

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Another discovery made through the interior restoration was found on the ceilings.

"Every single room had a drop ceiling, which dropped the ceiling a good foot and half for heating purposes," Butler said. "But restoring that, we found the original plaster ceilings that were still there."

In the lighthouse's dining room, removing the drop ceiling exposed a tongue and groove design, which matched the wainscoting paneling on the walls, which were also uncovered.

The Presque Isle Light Station is also re-building a doorway that used to lead to the parlor room, which was enclosed over the years. A carpenter will custom build new casework and a new door to match what the lightkeeper would've used, Butler said.

More than a house museum

Along with restoring the lighthouse to its original structures, the Presque Isle Light Station is also creating new ways to tell the lighthouse's history.

Up until 2014, one of the rooms served as a bathroom when the lighthouse was a residence for park managers. Instead of restoring the room to its original purpose of a bedroom, the Presque Isle Light Station will transform it into a rotating exhibit room.

"A house museum is a house museum, once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, but we would rather use this space to talk about other things," Butler said. "We want to bring in STEM and really expand what we’re talking about at the lighthouse and what the lighthouse can help explain and contribute."

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The Presque Isle Light Station is also opening up the second floor of the lighthouse for the first time ever to visitors.

"We used it as a place to store things and just didn’t have the capacity to interpret it, so it was just off-limits," Butler said.

But now, with more funds, resources and staff, the organization is looking forward to opening the space up and educating visitors further about life at the lighthouse.

The upstairs will showcase the lighthouse's original use for the space, which took the form of a drying room.

"It was a unique thing in lighthouses," Butler said. "It would’ve been literally used to dry things like weather gear, maybe sails, but also herbs and clothes. So we have some antique drying racks we’re going put here."

There will also be a mock bedroom set-up in one of the upstairs rooms as well.

To Butler, each new exhibit will contribute to the Presque Isle Light Station's mission to expand the history of the Presque Isle Lighthouse and lighthouses in general.

"We're really breaking down that box and opening visitors' eyes to just how important lighthouses were, not just to Erie, but all of the great lakes," Butler said. "So going beyond that traditional house museum view and entering into more conversations about the ecology of the lake, the changing nature of the peninsula and placing the lighthouse in a broader context."

Baylee DeMuth can be reached at 814-450-3425 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @BayleeDeMuth.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Presque Isle Lighthouse is being restored, new exhibits to come