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Roanoke River Lighthouse to re-open to the public

PRE News & Ideas | By George Olsen
Published August 7, 2014 at 6:09 AM EDT

INTRO – An 1866 lighthouse is re-opening to the public today (Thursday). George Olsen has more.

The Roanoke River Lighthouse was built at the mouth of the Roanoke in 1886. It was decommissioned in 1941 and later sold and moved, serving as a private residence for about 35 years.  That was one of multiple moves for the lighthouse… its most recent move coming in 2007 when it was loaded onto a barge and moved to the town waterfront. The lighthouse is the only surviving screw-pile lighthouse in the state.  Restoration of the lighthouse got underway in the 1990s with a push from community advocates. The state got involved in 2005. The formal opening of the lighthouse takes place next week, August the 15th though a special “sneak peek” will take place today (Thursday) in honor of National Lighthouse Day. Tours today will take place between 2-and-4 pm. I’m George Olsen.
ENC Regional News
George Olsen
George Olsen is a 1977 Havelock High School graduate. He received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1982 where he got his first taste of non-commercial radio working for their student station WUSC. After graduation he worked about five years in commercial radio before coming to work at Public Radio East where he has remained since outside of a nearly 3-year stint as jazz and operations coordinator at WUAL in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in the early 1990s. On his return to eastern North Carolina he hosted classical music for Public Radio East before moving into the Morning Edition host position and now can be heard on All Things Considered. He also hosts and produces The Sound, five hours of Americana, Roots Rock and Contemporary Folk weekday evenings on PRE Public Radio East News & Ideas, and is a news and feature producer for Public Radio East.
See stories by George Olsen