Ohio Lights - Fairport Harbor

Lighthouse at Fairport Harbor. 10/8/2025 dwm

The lighthouse in Fairport Harbor is known as "the light that shone for 100 years," but that's not exactly the case.

The original light was built and operating by the fall of 1825 to protect ships on stormy Lake Erie.

It's the shallowest of the Great Lakes, it doesn't take much to transform a calm lake into large and dangerous waves.

Fairport's story, shared in Lighthouse Friends, indicates the 55-foot lighthouse had a fixed white light fueled with whale oil. It was one of the first eight lights on the Great Lakes, which attracted ships to their port in numbers rivaling Cleveland's harbor.

The 68' tower shown 1st in 1871. 10/8/25 dwm

There is a part of the Fairport's history I don't recall reading about for any other lighthouse. In addition to being a light directing ships to safety, it also pointed the way to freedom as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Many of the people who lived in Fairport Harbor when the first lighthouse was operating were against slavery. That included shop-owners, sea captains, and lighthouse keepers who helped hide runaway slaves then get them across Lake Erie aboard ships to Canada.

By the 1840s, the first light was breaking down, and finally in 1869, Congress appropriated $30,000 for a new lighthouse and keeper's quarters.

Business was good in Fairport Harbor and it's busy port needed additional lights to guide the ships in from the lake.

When a house, light, and fog station was built and made operational in 1925, the light on the hill was deemed unnecessary. The federal government planned to tear down the Fairport Harbor, but local citizens rallied for its support.

Towns folk saved the lighthouse but it wasn't well-maintained.

Near the end of World War II, locals rallied again, this time with a plan to save it's local history and heritage. The Fairport Harbor Historical Society was born and the group received permission to turn the lighthouse and keeper's quarters into a maritime museum, the first of its kind in the United States. It continues serving in that capacity more than 75 years later, open during the tourist season, Memorial Day to early October.