Chance to live in a lighthouse is a beacon for buyers

WASHINGTON — A construction worker, a nanny and a clothing designer walk into a lighthouse.

It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but the government couldn't be happier with the punch line.

The lighthouse, you see, is surplus federal property -- and if these visitors like what they see, they'll bid against one another for the privilege of purchasing the dilapidated, rusting structure with a 360-degree view of Mount Hope Bay in Massachusetts.

The government's annual lighthouse auction, which began three years ago as an effort to rid the cash-strapped Coast Guard of these obsolete towers, has turned into a much-anticipated and lucrative event, drawing dozens of bidders from around the country.

Like Victrola collectors or Studebaker fanatics, the prospective purchasers of the Borden Flats Lighthouse, about a quarter-mile offshore from Fall River, Mass., are plunging checkbook-first into a burgeoning antiquarian market.

"Certainly life is too short not to experience everything you can," said nanny Nicole Kimborowicz, who bid $40,000 for Borden Flats. "To be within arm's reach of humanity but experience the world in a whole different way is quite intriguing to me."

About 450 lighthouses still stand in the United States, most of them towering over the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. Historically, they played a vital role in the transport of goods, serving as flashing signs along an unpaved highway, warning ships of jagged coastlines and hazardous shoals and reefs.

Through the 1800s and into the 1900s, lighthouse keepers and their families vigilantly maintained the buildings and the lights -- trimming wicks, refilling fuel, cleaning lenses. But with the advent of electricity and improvements in navigation technology, the job faded into extinction. Since 1939, the Coast Guard has been responsible for the structures, but many have fallen into disrepair, used more by sea gulls than seafarers.

"It was awful -- anything a sea gull could leave behind, it did," said Bob Gonsoulin, who purchased Middle Ground Lighthouse, near Newport News, Va., in 2005. "Everything was white with sea gull poop. There were dead sea gulls, fish and eggs everywhere. The floor was rotting. There was lead paint and no windows."

The neglect of the singular structures prompted Congress to pass the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. Those deemed to be surplus are first offered to local governments and nonprofits at no charge. If they remain unclaimed, they are auctioned online.