Light Hearted ep 21 – Ford Reiche, Halfway Rock, Maine

Ford Reiche at Halfway Rock. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont. Join hosts Jeremy D’Entremont and Michelle Jewell Shaw for an interview with Ford Reiche, the award-winning owner of remote Halfway Rock Lighthouse in Casco Bay in Maine. Ford Reiche has been an attorney and an entrepreneur; in 2008 he was named the Maine Small Businessperson of the Year and the Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year. He is also a trustee of Maine Preservation. Ford has acquired and restored several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, including his most recent project, a railroad station in Yarmouth. The subject of the interview in this episode of Light Hearted is his amazing restoration of Halfway Rock Lighthouse, far out in Casco Bay, 10 miles from Portland. Halfway Rock Lighthouse, photo by Jeremy D’Entremont The granite lighthouse, which was built in 1871, gets its name because it’s halfway between Cape Elizabeth to the south and Cape Small to the north. Ford Reiche bought the lighthouse at auction from the federal government in 2014. The Maine Preservation Association recognized the project with its 2016 Preservation Award, and the American Lighthouse Foundation presented Ford Reiche a 2017 “Keeper of the Light” award honoring his “contribution to the preservation of America’s lighthouses and their rich tradition.”