BAILEYS HARBOR (WLUK) — History is being restored at a popular attraction in Door County.
The bright red roof was completed last year at the Upper Range Light at The Ridges Sanctuary, and now volunteers are working on the interior.
Inside the 149-year old range light house, crews are working to restore the past.
Sherrill Eichler tells Fox 11 she’s working hard.
“We wet it down, let it sit for a couple of minutes. And then you scrape.”
And scrape, and scrape.
“Oh, it’s going pretty good, It just takes a lot of elbow grease,” said Al Eichler, Baileys Harbor.
And scraping some more.
“Then you get down to the bare wall which is what we’re aiming for. It’s a labor of love, yeah,” said Sherrill.
Volunteers are removing wallpaper to clear the way for renovations at The Ridges Sanctuary.
Ed Miller, Range Light Renovation Project Manager, says the Upper and Lower Range Light system guided ships into Baileys Harbor off and on since 1870.
“We need to re-do the floors, some floors that may have settled over time.”
In the parlor, Miller found a surprise beneath the carpet, linoleum, and tar paper.
“And then under there in just the gray area, was layers of of newspapers that they would have used for insulation.”
Much of the wallpaper dates back about 75 years, when the lighthouse was used as a parsonage for an area church.
Miller says historic renovations are designed to reflect the era around 1907.
“The Lighthouse Service would never have used wallpaper, they only painted. Lighthouses were generally painted white on the inside, so we’d like to get it back to white paint.”
But before anything can be painted, Al Eichler says all that wallpaper has to go.
“It’s an adventure. You don’t know what you’re going to discover. We’re finding out slowly. It’s become a challenge I think for a lot of us, but it’s really gratifying.”
Weekend tours of the lighthouse are scheduled to begin the third week of May.
Fundraising continues for the multi-phased project which runs about $500,000.
Donations and a grant from a local foundation are helping to cover the cost.
