Penfield Reef Lighthouse Heading to Auction Again

The Secretary of the Interior giveth and the Secretary of the Interior taketh away. And in the end, when it comes to the fate of Penfield Reef Lighthouse, which sits about a mile off Fairfield’s shoreline, a judge will have the final say.

In 2000, the federal government began to divest itself of the lighthouses that dot the coastline, including around two dozen in Connecticut, keeping most of them in operation for navigation purposes, but handing the properties over to public and private entities qualified to renovate and maintain them.

The National Park Service bequeathed the Penfield Lighthouse to Beacon Preservation in 2008, a private environmental organization based in Ansonia, at no cost. Last February, however, after three years of conflict between the group and state and federal officials over who owned the so-called bottomlands beneath the lighthouse, the secretary officially rescinded the offer and the park service will put the lighthouse up for auction.

Before the secretary made its decision, however, last year Beacon, seeing the handwriting on the wall, filed suit in federal court. On Monday, the organization abruptly sought to withdraw the matter, though the judge has yet to rule on the motion. Despite repeated requests for comment by The Patch, Beacon did not respond.

Having renovated a lighthouse in Maine, Beacon seemed to be a good choice to take control of the Penfield light, which consists of a spooky 1874 Victorian mansion, built on a granite outcropping about a mile off Fairfield Beach. Almost immediately, however, Beacon insisted that the federal government, rather than the state, retain legal control of the bottomlands.

Though the federal government helped arrange for a lease agreement with Hartford’s cooperation, “surprisingly, although state legislation specifically tailored to allow Beacon to occupy the submerged lands was enacted, Beacon failed to ever avail itself of that legislation, failing to take appropriate action,” according to legal documents made available by the United State Attorney’s office in New Haven.

During the dispute, Beacon’s insistence on adhering to arcane legalities led to a brief and fruitless stewardship of the property and the organization antagonized town, state and federal officials without doing anything to “make the lighthouse ‘available for education, park, recreation, cultural or historic preservation purposes for the general public,’ ” according to legal documents.

In papers filed by their attorney, Keith Murray, Beacon sought relief to allow it to administer the lighthouse and the lands beneath the structure “without first executing a lease with the State of Connecticut or the Town of Fairfield pertaining to the submerged lands on which Penfield Reef is situated” and to affirm Beacon’s “rights to all rights, title and interest” to the property.

According to Paula Santangelo, spokeswoman for the General Service Administration, the next step will be to post the lighthouse on the agency’s online auction web site, www.auctionrp.com, where any interested bidder can participate.

Even before the federal government awarded the lighthouse to Beacon, the town of Fairfield expressed interest in purchasing and preserving the historic structure, but the Board of Selectmen will have a lot of tough decisions to make, said Jennifer Carpenter, deputy chief of staff in the first selectman’s office.

“We hope this works out favorably for the town,” she said.