Light Hearted

With foreign trade blossoming from Newport, Rhode Island, local merchants petitioned for a lighthouse at Beavertail Point at the southern tip of Conanicut Island in the town of Jamestown, and a 69-foot-tall wooden tower was first lighted in 1749. It was the third light station in the American colonies. The 45-foot square granite lighthouse that stands today was built in 1856. The lighthouse is located within Beavertail State Park, and the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association (BLMA) preserves and manages the light station. The museum occupies two former keepers’ houses and two other buildings. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/DSC_3319adj-1024x683.jpg]Beavertail Light Station, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/beavertail-book-683x1024.jpg] Nancy Beye is the president of the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association. She’s also a councilwoman on the Jamestown Town Council and owner of the Jamestown Early Learning Center. David Smith is a board member of the BLMA, and he has been involved with the development of many of the exhibits in the museum at Beavertail. Varoujan Karentz is on the board of the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association and is the author of three books and numerous articles. His book Beavertail Light Station is the most comprehensive history available on this historic location.

[https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/IMG_0075adj-768x1024.jpg]Grosse Point Light Station. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Grosse Point Lighthouse, located at the southern end of Lake Michigan in Evanston, Illinois, was established in 1873 as the primary lighthouse marking the approach to Chicago. Since 1983, for an amazing 42 years, Don Terras has been chief administrator of the Lighthouse Park District, a unit of local government in Evanston. He  is also the live-in manager of the Grosse Point Light Station museum, essentially serving as the modern-day keeper. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/headshot-2-1024x918.jpg]Don Terras This is an edited version of a conversation with Don Terras that was recorded in the museum in the former keeper’s house at Grosse Point Light Station in November 2019. Also taking part in the conversation is Jeff Gales, executive director of the U.S. Lighthouse Society.

This is part two of a two part interview with Lorna Pierce and Gloria Coder, the daughters of Seamond Ponsart Roberts (1940-2023). Seamond was the daughter of the longtime Massachusetts lighthouse keeper Octave Ponsart, and she was the author of the book Everyday Heroes, The True Story of a Lighthouse Family. Seamond’s childhood was spent at Cuttyhunk Light and West Chop Light in Massachusetts. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/seamond6-1024x700.jpg]Seamond Ponsart Roberts in 2001, tossing a wreath into the waves at Cuttyhunk Island in memory of her parents. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/465845974_10234393571042216_1654809421469154746_n-443x1024.jpg] Here is an excerpt from Seamond’s obituary: “The bad days were sure bad enough, but since there were so many good days (like 99.9 percent of the time) what the heck. She had a good life for sure — and I should know as I, Seamond Roberts, wrote all this myself. Goodbye to all my family and friends. Thank you for listening to me and for being so dear to me. I hope to see each of you in our next life’s further adventures.” Right: Seamond, Gloria, and Lorna, circa 1960s.

[https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/seamond-copy-663x1024.jpg]Young Seamond in front of the keeper’s house at Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. The guests in this episode are Gloria Coder and Lorna Pierce. Gloria and Lorna are the daughters of the late Seamond Ponsart Roberts (1940-2023). Seamond was the daughter of a longtime lighthouse keeper in Massachusetts, and she was the author of the book Everyday Heroes: The True Story of a Lighthouse Family. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BookCoverPreviewNEW-e1748552710905.jpg] Seamond’s father, Octave Ponsart, began his lighthouse keeping career at Great Point on Nantucket. He spent five years as the keeper at Dumpling Rock in southeastern Massachusetts, and he and his family barely survived the hurricane of 1938. He became the keeper of Cuttyhunk Light off Cape Cod in 1940. He then spent 11 years as keeper at West Chop Light on Martha’s Vineyard. Seamond spent just a few years as a child at Cuttyhunk, but she always considered it home because of her mother’s family’s roots there. This is part one of a two part interview. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/66dbe10e-41ca-4507-a6f5-09bd8e406bbe.jpeg]Gloria, Seamond, and Lorna

A light station was established on Maine’s 220-acre Great Duck Island in 1890, with a 42-foot-tall brick tower and three keepers’ dwellings. Only one of the three houses remain standing today. The light was automated in 1986 and it remains an active aid to navigation. In 1998 Great Duck Island Light Station, along with Mount Desert Rock Light Station, became the property of Bar Harbor’s College of the Atlantic. Students and staff from the college now live in the former keeper’s dwelling much of the year. The ongoing research projects [https://www.coa.edu/islands/great-duck-island/] largely focus on the island’s bird populations. [https://news.uslhs.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/IMG_0956adj-1024x683.jpg]Great Duck Island Light Station, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. [https://www.coa.edu/faculty/webpages/janderson/images/johnanderson.jpg]John Anderson (Courtesy of COA) John Anderson has been a professor at College of the Atlantic for more than 30 years. His field research centers around Great Duck Island. John says that he is interested in the intersection between natural history and human history in relation to long-term ecological processes.