The American Lighthouse Foundation’s Keeper of the Light award is designed to honor those individuals and organizations in the national lighthouse community who have contributed in a significant manner to the preservation of America’s lighthouses and their rich heritage.
On November 5, 2023, ALF presented Peter Ralston with a Keeper of the Light award during the organization’s annual Gala, which was held at the Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport, Maine.
The following award overview was included in the Gala program booklet and was written by ALF Executive Director Bob Trapani, Jr.:
The American Lighthouse Foundation’s 2023 “Keeper of the Light” award recipient: Peter Ralston
(L to R) ALF 1st Vice-President Nick Korstad, ALF Treasurer Alan Ells, ALF Executive Director Bob Trapani, Jr., Peter Ralston and ALF President Jeremy D’Entremont.
(Photo by Dominic Trapani)
Peter Ralston is no stranger to the Maine coast – and its majestic lighthouses. In fact, if not for Peter’s visionary efforts a quarter century ago, America’s lighthouse landscape would not be “shining” as bright as it does today.
It is rare in the preservation world for someone to identify a need, then act upon the void with unwavering conviction, and subsequently bring forth a solution that is not only successful, but one that reverberates through time to benefit posterity.
Following a devastating fire that badly damaged the keeper’s house at Heron Neck Light Station in April 1989, the Coast Guard announced plans to demolish the structure. Preservationists and community members alike opposed such a plan and eventually the historic property was transferred to the Island Institute in Rockland.
The former keeper’s house at Heron Neck Light Station was badly damaged by a fire in April 1989.
(U.S. Coast Guard photo)
The Island Institute in turn partnered with private individuals who worked diligently to restore the fire-damaged keeper’s house at the time. The success of this project inspired Peter Ralston, Executive Vice President of the Island Institute at the time, to approach the U.S. Coast Guard with a proposal so different, so broad in scope and so unlikely to occur, that of course, it was destined to work!
Peter’s groundbreaking idea became the Maine Lights Program.
The initiative was like no other in lighthouse history. It was replete with opportunities for preservation, adaptive reuse, public access and educational possibilities that were previously unattainable in both scope and impact.
Peter Ralston served as the keynote speaker during ALF’s 2023 Gala at the Nonantum Resort in Kennebunkport.
(Photo by Dominic Trapani)
In the Maine Lights Program Overview and Conclusion Report of January 2000, Peter Ralston, noted, “The original notion or concept of the Maine Lights Program dates to the awareness of a number of significant and pressing needs regarding the destiny of lighthouses here in the state of Maine, elsewhere in the United States, as well as in other maritime nations.”
Ralston went on to say, “Long experience informed Mainers that their treasured lights were caught between a compelling need to honor their extremely valuable historic and emotional place in the hearts of many coastal communities, and the harsher current financial realities wrought by the budgetary priorities of the Federal agencies charged with their maintenance and, ultimately, fate.”
“Maine’s Island Institute’s experience with the cumbersome existing Federal property transfer process led, in March of 1994, to the innovative concept of a mass transfer, one which would:
- Ensure preservation and maintenance of Maine’s lighthouses in perpetuity
- Ensure public access in perpetuity (no exclusionary or private ownership)
- Ensure continued U.S. Coast Guard function as active aids to navigation
- Ensure that new owners would be the most capable / appropriate entities
- Ensure a local voice; Mainers would determine the destiny of “their” lights
- Provide the U.S. Coast Guard with a solution to their financially-driven dilemma
- Ensure a collectively huge financial savings from what 28 individual transfers would have cost the state, municipal and nonprofit entities
- Develop an (inter)national model for a non-traditional approach to property transfers, which would most heavily rely on local knowledge and common sense
The Maine Lights legislation was approved as Federal law on October 19, 1996.
One of 28 transfers under the Maine Lights Program – Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse to the City of Rockland.
(Photo by Bob Trapani, Jr.)
In June 1997, President George Bush noted, “Through the Maine Lights Program, we have been presented with a truly historic opportunity for establishing an internationally noteworthy conservation and preservation program…one that creates a partnership between the Federal and municipal governments, environmental groups, and other nonprofit organizations.”
On June 20, 1998, those entities obtaining the 28 lighthouses being transferred through the Maine Lights Program gathered on the lawn of the Samoset Resort to receive ceremonial deeds from the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard.
“In a span of only two years, this program has resulted in the transfer by the Federal government of 28 historic lighthouses, most accessible only by boat, to qualified local communities, nonprofit organizations, and state agencies that will love and care for them on behalf of posterity,” said U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe.
Senator Snowe went on to say, “If I were to sum up the Maine Lights Program with one phrase, it would be ‘good government at its best.’ It was born of collaboration, cooperation, and consultation. Through a partnership including the Federal government, state government, local communities, and private organizations – everyone had worked together, and everyone’s been given a voice in the process.”
Peter Ralston
(Photo by Terri Ralston)
Looking back, a statement by Peter Ralston proved to be quite prophetic in nature, when he said, “The spirit of intense and effective cooperation between the USCG and the people of the State of Maine has resulted in an immediate win-win situation, which shines a bright light of innovation, leadership and thoughtful accomplishment all along Maine’s fabled coast and far beyond.”
As a direct result of the success of the Maine Lights Program, U.S. Congress used the program as a model to create the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. The NHLPA established a multi-step process involving the U.S. Coast Guard, General Services Administration and the National Park Service to transfer lighthouses across the country to worthy entities. A process that is still ongoing to this day. In retrospect, Peter’s vision and accomplishments have indeed gone “far beyond.”
ALF Executive Director Bob Trapani, Jr. with Terri and Peter Ralston at the ALF Gala.
(Photo by Dominic Trapani)
It gives the American Lighthouse Foundation great pleasure to present Peter Ralston with a 2023 Keeper of the Light award for creating and guiding the Maine Lights Program – on this, the 25th anniversary of the completion (1998) of such an unprecedented and historic achievement!
After receiving the ALF Keeper of the Light award, Peter Ralston shared the following:
“Although I conceived of what became the Maine Lights Program, not a single bit of it would – or could – have happened without the passion, commitment, hard work and faith of a great many others who wanted to ensure that Maine will never lose its lighthouse heritage, much less the lighthouses themselves. The program initially bore fruit thirty years ago but what really counts is the sustained dedication – not to mention countless hours and dollars – expended since then. The lights of the Maine Lights Program burn brightly to this very day.”
Well said, Peter. Congratulations – and THANK YOU!
