A rare and unusual new property is for sale in Virginia. The Middle Ground Lighthouse is a privately owned, fully restored lighthouse that is only accessible by boat. The property is now on offer for private sale.
Built in 1891, Middle Ground Lighthouse is the oldest caisson lighthouse in Virginia, according to its website. It sits in the Chesapeake Bay near Newport News and still flashes its light every night, though it has now been renovated into a fully furnished private residence.
Restoring History
The lighthouse had its last official lightkeeper in 1955. Then, the structure withstood “decades of exposure, salt, wind, and neglect slowly taking their toll.” In 2005, two families — Bob and Joan Gonsoulin and Dan and Jackie Billingsley — purchased the lighthouse for $31,000 and began to restore it.
When they first got it, “it was just an outright wreck,” says Dan. A door had been left open and birds left a mess, plus the wooden floors had rotted. And the ladder to access the lighthouse from a boat was swinging by only one bolt, he says. With the help of friends and family — including their college-aged kids, who were studying engineering — they worked for years to fix the place up.
“We had actually very little professional help. We had a great deal of talented volunteer help, largely from the kids’ college buddies, who were really interested in coming down and spending the weekend,” Dan says. “It’s amazing what they would do for beer and pizza.”
That process included scraping rust, repairing structures, repainting and redoing floors, and installing systems like plumbing and HVAC. Eddie Prokop, father to Joan and Jackie, helped too, using his skills as a carpenter to build custom furniture for the home.
The whole process was a bonding experience and a way to make memories, they say. “There are 11 engineers in our family. … This is what we live and breathe. This was fun,” says Jackie.
A Unique Vacation Home
It took three to four years to complete the bulk of the renovation, then the lighthouse served as a vacation cottage for the owners. In all, it spans about 1,100 square feet (though, Dan quips, “none of the feet are square.”)
There’s a functional kitchen with a dining table and benches, a living room with curved seating that fits around the circular walls, and sleeping quarters with custom murals. Compass roses are painted on the ceilings because it’s easy to get disoriented climbing the spiral staircases that take you from floor to floor.
The structure now has hot and cold water, a propane gas range, solar panels, a generator, and a working HVAC system. A balcony wraps around the whole lighthouse for a serene place to take in views and enjoy the peace of open water.
Over the years, the owners have invited in friends and acquaintances, and sometimes even strangers — like fishers passing by on boats — to check out what they’d created. The porthole room has a wall of signatures from guests who visited over the years. “We haven’t counted them all, but we have over 2,000 signatures,” Jackie says.
The light on top still helps ships navigate past Middle Ground Shoal. The light is maintained by the Coast Guard, and the owners only had to make sure the Coast Guard could access it when needed.
The Next Chapter
Now that the owners are in their 70s, they say it’s not as easy to make the trip out. “We’re just not using it as much as we used to,” Jackie says.
Dan says they hope the new buyers will be people who can “appreciate it as much as we do, the historic value and uniqueness of the site. … I hope we find somebody that enjoys it as much as we have.”
“I would say to the new owners, it’s not a second home, ‘cottage at the beach’ type. It’s an adventure. Because your guests end up being so excited — most people have never been into a lighthouse. It’s really been a lot of fun,” Jackie says.
The lighthouse isn’t on the market like a typical piece of real estate. Instead, interested buyers can submit an inquiry form online. Offers are due July 4.
Feature image courtesy middlegroundlight.com
