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Lighthouse Digest subscribers have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a National Lighthouse Museum. Seventeen per cent of the Lighthouse Digest subscribers responded to the poll, and a whopping 95.5% per cent were in favor of a national lighthouse museum, while only 4.5% were against the idea.

Of the 95.5% that were in favor of a national lighthouse museum, the results of where they felt the museum should be located are as follows:

48% New England

23% Great Lakes

12% Mid-Atlantic

5% South Atlantic

3% Staten Island

3% Washington, DC

3% California

1% Gulf Coast

1.5% Other

.5% Northwest

Comments included with the poll forms showed that readers felt New England should be the site because that was where lighthouses were first built and where America started. However, those voting for the Great Lakes said the museum should be located there since there are more lighthouses on the Great Lakes than any place else. Many of the Great Lakes supporters also stated that the museum should be in Michigan, since that state, at 116, has the most lighthouses, many which are open to the public.

Interestingly, the sites that have been talked about the most by the site selection committee for the National Lighthouse Museum, Washington D.C. and the old Lighthouse Depot on Staten Island are two locations which received very few votes. The comments from readers were that Washington, D.C. was inappropriate, and that they would not consider going to Staten Island to see a lighthouse museum.

Of the small minority of 4.5% that were not in favor of a national lighthouse museum, most said they felt the money should be spent on individual lighthouse preservation, rather than on a museum.

On the other hand, the news is good for places like Rhode Island where public officials, including the governor, have been working hard to get their state picked for the site.

This story appeared in the November 1997 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.

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