Group of boaters help the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse shine once more

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Since the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse is an iconic Chicago Landmark.

But it's showing its age. CBS 2's Noel Brennan tells us how a group of boaters hopes to do more than just restore the old lighthouse.

"Most boaters will be staying in today."

In waters rough and calm, boaters count on the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse.

"We've been by this lighthouse hundreds of times."

Kurt Lentsch is no expert on historical preservation, but he knows a 130-year-old lighthouse needs some love.

"I'm just the one who said let's try to do something. More than ten years, and nothing has been done."

The city owns the lighthouse and is tasked with preserving it.

Last year, Lentsch dreamed up a nonprofit, Friends of the Chicago Harbor Lighthouse.

"We want to take the burden of restoring the lighthouse off the taxpayers of the city of Chicago," he said.

Lentsch said he wants to preserve, restore and celebrate a Chicago landmark and converting a lighthouse into a museum on water.

"(To) create a lighthouse museum, it has been done in many other communities much, much smaller than ours and very successfully," Lentsch said.

It requires expertise from a guy who knows the past and present.

"It's part of Chicago's history and legacy of who we are." 

Ed Torrez is a preservation architect working with the nonprofit. He's visited the lighthouse four times and studied its condition.

"It's been somewhat neglected, and it needs a little tender loving care," Torrez said.

The restoration will take years, and likely $3 to $5 million. But one day, an old beacon for boaters, could welcome visitors from all over the city.

"It's sort of a symbol of the greatness of the city of chicago."

In:
• Chicago
• Lake Michigan