Restoration of the 1867 Lighthouse Keeper's Residence


The Restoration of a Historic Building
Kenosha County Historical Society along with the City of Kenosha have been jointly restoring the 1867 Lighthouse Keeper's residence since 2001. A restoration plan was completed in 2002 and was funded by a Wisconsin Coastal Management grant. Minor interior demolition also commenced in 2002. The plan focused the restoration of both the exterior and interior to an 1908 time period. A grant was also obtained from the Community Block Grant fund (CDBG) in 2004 from the City of Kenosha. This grant funded a new roof and the tuckpointing of two historic chimneys and the reconstruction of a third chimney.

This led to a second grant from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program, which funded a large portion of the exterior restoration of the building. At this time, the City hired the architectural firm of Engberg and Anderson Design Partnership. This portion of the restoration included the demolition and reconstruction of the historic porch, replacement and repair of damaged wood trim and cream city bricks, the cleaning of the bricks, relocation and enlargement of the rear entry and the construction of a handicapped entry.


Interior floor plans and details were completed by Eric Johnson, a student of Gateway Technical College, in cooperation with Engberg Anderson. Engberg Anderson is compiling construction drawings and specifications for interior restoration of the building. The interior restoration is being completed with funding through the Transportation Enhancements Program from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT). This grant will fund the restoration of hardwood floors, repair and reconstruction of plaster walls and ceilings, relocation and recreation of doorways, the repair and restoration of the historic staircase and new historically accurate wooden windows.

Additional CDBG grants were also obtained for a new heating and cooling system and gutters, which were installed in 2007. CDBG grants also funded electrical rewiring, custom milled storm windows, new sidewalks and custom wrought iron stair handrails, which were all completed in 2007. A third Coastal Management grant funded a new rubber membrane roof on a one-story previous addition, new exterior wooden cellar doors, rebuilding of a brick knee wall adjacent to the cellar stairway and new custom wooden basement windows.

The Transportation Enhancements Program (TE) most recently funded the interior restoration, which was completed in December, 2009. This work began in 2008 and involved demolition, stripping paint from wooden window and door trim, new plaster walls and ceilings, hardwood maple floor restoration, relocation and reinstallation of historic doorway openings, installation of a handicapped accessible restroom, custom milled wooden trim, custom milled wooden windows, restoration of the main staircase to the second story and painting of walls with historic paint colors determined from paint scrapings from the original walls.

The Mary Frost Ashley Foundation awarded money to the Kenosha History Center in 2009 to create and build wall panels, a map chart table, and other exhibits that will be installed on the first floor. The exhibits will be installed in late April, 2010 to mid May, 2010 in preparation for the grand opening of the Southport Light Station Museum on May 15, 2010.




Restoration Fund Raising
The work is still not done! The Kenosha History Center still needs to raise additional money to finish the restoration of the second floor. The second floor work will require demolition of damaged plaster walls and ceilings, replastering, restoration of pine flooring, custom-milled missing/damaged woodwork, installation of refinished doors and window/door trim and painting. To raise additional funds, the History Center is featuring several programs including the following:

Memorial bricks
Lighthouse Keeper bricks
Window sponsorship
Room Naming