I remember it in a mist, really. When I was young, we went on an excursion to Block Island. It’s a tiny lump of dirt and rocks out in the Atlantic, just a short ferry boat ride from a couple of places around here. We bicycled around there. It was like another planet to us.
It seemed like Holland or something. Self contained. At the mercy of the elements. Obscure and isolate. No bustle like Martha’s Vineyard. It must have been four decades ago we went; I’m not sure going would be the same. Nothing is the same for very long.
On an island like that, a lighthouse is not a decoration. But like many things used to be, the utilitarian nature of the structure doesn’t mean it has to be industrial looking, or ugly. We used to be better at such things. I want to bicycle past this again, and wonder where all the ships that scan the foggy horizon for its beam are going.
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I just visited Block Island for the first time a few weeks ago. Beautiful! I was traveling with friends, though, and I didn’t get to hang around and take many pictures of the lighthouse. I had the same thought; how unnecessarily wonderful it was.
Hi Weasel- This lighthouse is still there. Did you by chance see it?
Oh, yes. There was a wedding going on nearby, but we walked all around the lighthouse and squinted up at it. It’s amazing; almost squat, for a lighthouse.
Awesome. The base courses are rusticated, and the angle that the granite blocks that form the foundation of the lighthouse is a method called “battering.” It takes its name from the construction of forts and castles and what-not. No wonder it looks squat; it could take a direct mangonel hit.