Port man’s book on city’s lighthouses will benefit Historical Society

 When Pat Curtiss moved from Arizona to his hometown of Port Washington last year, he decided to volunteer as a guide at the Light Station.

He enjoyed it so much that he decided to create an informational flyer to give to visitors, but he acquired so much information it wouldn’t fit into a brochure.

Instead, Curtiss parlayed the information into a book, “The Light on the House at the Top of the Stairs.”

Curtiss self-published the softcover, 63-page volume and is selling it for $19.99, with the proceeds going to support the Port Washington Historical Society, which runs the Light Station.

The book provides a plethora of information about the four lighthouses that have been in Port Washington and the men and women who tended them, covering a period from 1849 to 1935, when the pierhead light was electrified.

“These are the people who climbed the stairs of the lighthouse and lit the light,” Curtiss said. “Not those who flipped a switch to turn on the light.

“It’s interesting. Some people we have a lot of information, others not so much. And there are other books that have a little of this, a little of that, maybe information on other things like the draft riots. But this is just about the lighthouse.”

His favorite sections, he said, deal with the Lewis and Schoomer families. Multiple members of each family tended the city’s light

The book also has information on the Kevich lighthouse in the Town of Grafton, built by the Rev. Brana Kevich — one of only two lighthouses approved by the Coast Guard as a Class II private aid to navigation. That lighthouse is on private property and is not open to the public.

“I call it a bonus section,” Curtiss said. “Some people don’t know about it at all.”

Of the four Port lighthouses, two remain today, the Light Station and the pierhead light at the end of the breakwater.

Curtiss said he’s glad the Society has maintained the historic 1860 Light Station, but said the city’s lighthouse is another story.

“I see our lighthouse out there and it’s all rusty — it makes me sad,” he said.

Curtiss said the book has been well received. It is being sold at the Shoppes of Port Washington as well as the Port Exploreum. It will also be sold at the Light Station when it opens June 27.

He’s also tentatively scheduled a book talk about the volume.

“It was a fun project,” he said.

It was so much fun, Curtiss said, he’s already looking to do a second book, this one looking at the buildings that line Franklin Street both historically and as they are today.