Report cites 2024 accomplishments at Fairport Harbor Marine Museum and Lighthouse- The News-Herald
Fairport Harbor Marine Museum and Lighthouse attracted nearly 5,000 visitors in 2024.
In addition, two new and customized interactive kiosks were installed inside the museum last year.
Those were several achievements noted in the latest annual report produced by the Fairport Harbor Historical Society. The group’s president, Marty O’Gara, gave a presentation on that document during the Feb. 18 Fairport Harbor Village Council meeting.
The society is an all-volunteer organization that operates and maintains the museum, founded in 1945, and the 153-year-old lighthouse, both located at 129 Second St. These two structures are owned by the village government and leased to the historical society, in perpetuity, at an annual cost of $1.
In 2024, 4,777 people visited the museum and lighthouse, the report stated. That represented an increase of 720 visitors, compared with the 4,057 guests who dropped by during the 2023 season.
Visitors who signed the tourist attraction’s guestbook in 2024 resided in 22 different states. Guests from outside the United States came from Canada, Chile, Israel, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
One of the society’s fundraising events in 2024 was “Encountering the Eclipse: A Towering View.” The society sold raffle tickets that granted five winners and their guests the privilege of climbing to the top of the tower on April 8 to watch the solar eclipse.
The marine museum’s income is generated by fundraisers, admission fees, society membership dues, donations, grants, bequests and fundraising events.
“No government funding is received on a regular basis,” the report stated.
Society volunteers, officers and board members teamed up to provide 4,900 hours of service at the museum last year.
For the society, 2024 also marked a year when it completed a variety of significant improvement projects. Examples include:
• Two customized interactive touchscreen kiosks were created, purchased and installed in the museum. These displays offer museum visitors different approaches to explore history.
Funding from Tour Lake County and Fairport Harbor Village government provided a large portion of funding for the interactive kiosks, as well as new outdoor signs for the museum and lighthouse.
• The USS Michigan mast, one of the museum’s prized artifacts, was taken down, repaired, painted and put back into place.
• New roofs were installed on the museum and garage.
• The pilot house roof was repaired.
• The museum’s gift shop was freshly painted, and new honeycomb blinds were installed.
• The society leased an offsite storage unit, which freed up space in the museum and made it easier to rotate artifacts in the organization’s overall collection.
In 2025, some of the highlights on the museum’s calendar are:
• May 23 — Opening of the museum’s 2025 season at noon, along with the re-dedication of the USS Michigan mast.
• June 14 — Boat parade and Blessing of the Fleet.
• June 21 — 200th anniversary celebration of the original Fairport Harbor lighthouse on Second Street.
After O’Gara finished presenting the annual report at the Feb. 18 council meeting, Mayor Tim Manross saluted the society for its work at the museum. He specifically mentioned the group’s efforts to rent offsite storage space and rearrange museum artifacts, and the project which spruced up the gift shop.
“I know that was a very heavy lift for you and your volunteers, to re-envision the museum space, to get the rental unit, to take a lot of the stuff that was there out and to be able to move it around, but I think it was a home run,” he said to O’Gara. “Also, walking through the door, the gift shop has been transformed, etc. So kudos to you and your group and all of the many, many volunteers that make the museum and lighthouse what it is.”