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Coastal Beacons are the Lights of his Life
Story ran on: July 22, 1993
From the: Tourist News
Author: Judith Hansen
Maybe it's the isolation. Maybe it's the haunting sound of a foghorn on a dark night. Maybe it's the heroic image of the light keeper manning his post through a violent storm, saving ships and crews from disaster. Maybe it's the rugged beauty of lighthouse environs.
Whatever the reason, humans seem to be drawn to lighthouses like moths to a porch light. Thus it was with Tim Harrison and thus it seems to be with the throngs of lighthouses lovers who flock to his new store, Lighthouse Gifts, on Route 1 in Wells, and their Lighthouse Digest magazine now has 4500 subscribers in 38 states and 6 countries.
A native of Michigan, Harrison grew up with the freshwater lighthouses of the Great Lakes region. "There are 438 lighthouses on the Great Lakes," says Harrison, who can spout lighthouse statistics like a whale spouts seawater, "116 in Michigan alone."
He saw his first Maine lighthouse four years ago. After selling the credit bureau that he had founded in Chicago in 1976, Harrison took a four-year sabbatical from the work-a-day world. He and his partner, Kathleen Finnegan, took to the road in a motor home. There destination? Maine.
Says Harrison, "Kathy wanted to see all the lighthouses in Maine, so I said, 'Why not?'"
Their lighthouse pilgrimage took them, of necessity, to every neck and cranny of the Maine coast. "We realized that visiting lighthouses was a great way to explore the coast," says Harrison.
The couple was quickly caught up in the mystique of the coastal beacons. "Europe has its castles and we have lighthouses. They are the oldest structures in the United States," says Harrison, "Lighthouse are a symbol of strength and hope, and they are rich in history. Some of the most interesting historical events involve lighthouses."
He offers these examples: 1) Paul Revere's first ride was when he rode to the Fort Constitution Lighthouse on what is now the Maine-New Hampshire border. 2) The largest defeat suffered by the U.S. Navy prior to Pearl Harbor occurred at Fort Point Light near Stockton Springs, Maine; during a famous sea-land battle of the Revolutionary War 43 Patriot ships and crews were lost.
Thus inspired, Harrison and Finnegan decided to write a lighthouse guidebook. Lighthouses of Maine and New Hampshire includes photographs (most by Harrison) of every lighthouse in the two states, historical information and directions of viewing and visiting the lighthouses.
They moved to South Portland, self-published the first printing of 30,000 books in 1991, and began selling it door-to-door at bookstores and gift shops along the coast. "We had a great response," says Harrison. "The shopkeepers kept asking if we had other lighthouse stuff. Pretty soon it dawned on me that there was a market here so we began wholesaling other lighthouse theme gifts."
It was obviously an idea whose time had come. They sold 15,000 copies of their book the first year, and soon they were getting requests for a catalog. "They were buying things sight unseen and reordering immediately," says Harrison. "They wanted anything with lighthouses on it."
Harrison and Finnegan obliged. They offered mugs, t-shirts, lamps, books, linens, salt and pepper shakers, calendars, videotapes, bird feeders, postcards. He created a children's coloring-story book, "The Littlest Lighthouse," which sold 5000 copies in its first year. They started publishing the Lighthouse Digest. "Then mail orders started pouring in," says Harrison.
The only marketing outlet left untapped was a retail store. Thus, in June of this year Harrison and Finnegan opened Lighthouse Gifts, which they say is "the world's largest lighthouse gift store."
Clearly an astute businessman, Harrison describes the lighthouse phenomenon as "a niche market waiting to happen." Yet, it is also clear that he is motivated at least as much by his love of lighthouses and his appreciation of them as part of our national heritage. "We've been instrumental in saving two lighthouses," says Harrison with pride.
The preservation of lighthouses, "creating public awareness to save them," is a personal goal for Finnegan and Harrison and part of the editorial mission of Lighthouse Digest. Each issue includes a "Doomsday List" of endangered lighthouses and stories about successful preservation efforts.
Through the lighthouse network, of which they are now a major link, Finnegan and Harrison recently learned that in the last tow years, lighthouses in Maine and elsewhere have had more visitors than ever before. The two hope that they have played a role in that trend.
Date Entered into online database: March 23, 2001
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