Longtime Westport resident, Jerry Tilley, remembers well the second Coast Guard fog signal building and radio towers that were located on the beach just south of the foot of W. Ocean Avenue.
Tilley recently shared the following information regarding the site:
“We arrived in Westport in 1942 during the Second World War, along with the Army’s 44th Division. The radio towers and the building were there until at least 1951 — although not in operation.
“I climbed to the top of one of those towers at night one 4th of July and set off a stick of dynamite with a three-foot-long fuse. After the blast that was significant, all the other fireworks participants all along the beach stopped whatever they were firing off. Back in those days, most people went to the beach to set off their fireworks.
“As time went by, the tide kept crawling up the beach and eventually covered the building and it sank into the sand,” he said.
Tilley also recalls that, “In the early forties, Bernard and Deloris Pink lived with their parents out beyond where the condominiums are located now. Pink had a sawmill out there and sawed salvaged logs off the beach into lumber.”
Editor’s Note: Thanks, Jerry, for sharing the memories! I’m betting that there are a few more of you out there who remember that building and those towers, as well. Please contact Barb at the South Beach Bulletin and share yours, as well?
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