Big dreams in a Navy danger zone: Why a painter decided to buy an aging lighthouse

To call it a fixer-upper would be generous. There’s no running water, no heat, no electricity. Once one gets past the romance of buying a historic Chesapeake Bay lighthouse, there’s lead paint, asbestos and toxic benzene. Vandals broke down the door and seabirds died inside. Crap is everywhere. Oh, it sits in about 18-feet of water within a U.S. Navy testing site called a “danger zone.” Who wants the Hooper Island Lighthouse anyway? When the federal government auctioned the 120-year-old lighthouse in September, as a last resort, a bidding war broke out. The price jumped from $15,000 to $38,000. Then $189,000.