The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1959-05-22
HATTERAS LIGHT
TO GET $4,000
FACE LIFTING JOB
New District Commandan+ oil
Coast Guards Pays Visit to
Historic Structure

$eAA5 Oil AuLA11 al ulIcCIly
when he is off-guard is taking an
unfair advantage of him and so
the historians will have to make
out somehow without knowing
precisely what Rear Admiral Pet
er V. Colmar said when he stop
ped, apparently aghast, at the
threshold of Cape Hatteras Light
house on his first visit as Com
n1ander, Fifth District, U. S. Coast
Guard.
But the new Admiral's actions,
disclosed this week, speak just as
clearly for him: the Lighthouse is
going to have a face-lifting. 1t is
going to be cleaned and repaired,
inside and out, and by the end of
the summer the historic structure
will look like it used to and maybe
even better than it did when Capt.
Unaka Jennette turned it over to
the National Park Service 81 years
ago.
Nobody has known for sure dur
ing the past 20 years whose bust
ness it was to keep the Lighthouse
looking like it was built to look.
1t has never been owned by the
Coast Guard since it was turned
over to the Park Service just a
few weeks before the Coast Guard
absorbed the old Lighthouse serv-
ice in 1888. The tower was aban-
doned because it looked as if moth
ing could save it from topping in
to the ocean. The light was return
ed to the tower nine years under
an agreement that did not make
clear who did the housekeeping
and maintenance.
Next day after he got back to
his headquarters Admiral Colmar
invited Robert F. Gibbs, superin-
tendent of the Cape Hatteras Ma
tional Seashore, to come to lunch
with him in Norfolk. By the time
they got to their after-lunch coffee
the two had agreed: The Coast
Guard will clean up and maintain
the outside of the tower and the
National Park Service will mind
the interior.
By now the undertaking for both
has become a considerable project
and the total cost of it will range
to upward of $4,000. The inside
has to be sand blasted and painted
and the outside has a lot of re-
pairing to be done. And some new
paint applied, new railing around
the sightseeing platform at the
top. Mr.. Gibbs is also engaged in
doing some needed landscaping on
the grounds, and, perhaps equally
important, the two men speak very
highly of each other.
Admiral Colmar succeeds Admi-
raj Harold C. Moore as command
err of the District and that in itself
/ is an undertaking of considerable
magnitude. Moore was one of the
most effective and at the same
time popular commanders ever to
come to the district There were
many who wanted him to become
Commandant but he has gone to
the West Coast to command that
and the Pacific ocean in a com
mand that ranks just under that
of commandant.
The new District Commander, al
81, is the youngest man ever to
command the most active district
in the Coast Guard. He came down
from Washington as chief-of-stafi
to Admiral Moore and with the
duty as commander already as
signed. He is an engineer and they
call him "the Rickover of the
Coast Guard" He is rated as its
ablest electronics scientist.
On his get-acquanited visit to
Cape Hatteras group Admiral Col
mar came almost unannounced and
the crew discovered right away
after his helicopter landed that
there was nothing stuffy about him
See LIGHT, Page Eight