Northshore Home magazine highlights the best in architectural design, new construction and renovations, interiors, and landscape design.
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/660193
84 SPRING 2016 FORTRESS OF FUN A MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA COUPLE REPURPOSES A 1943 FIRE CONTROL TOWER FOR BEACH HOUSE ACCOMMODATIONS. By Regina Cole Photographs by Brian Kelly "T HIS IS A VERTICAL LAND YACHT," SHERRY Kelly laughs as she walks toward the front door of the 165-foot tower that crowns a hill in Manchester-by-the-Sea. With a Ph.D. in pharmaceuticals, Kelly works on transplant issues in the biotech industry. Her husband, Brian Kelly, is president of the Kelly Automotive Group. The new empty nesters were looking to downsize when this lot on Gale's Point, including the tower, went up for sale. "We were looking for a little beach house," Brian says. "We saw this and could not resist. It's fun!" A decades-old former fire tower now serves as a "vertical land yacht." vignettes nshoremag.com/nshorehome/ The tower, a prominent landmark on the waterfront of Manchester-by-the-Sea, dates back to 1943, when it was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as part of the defense of Boston Harbor. Lining the coast from Eastport, Maine, to Corpus Christi, Texas, these fire con- trol towers (fire as in armaments, not flames) sent the coordinates of enemy ships and submarines to nearby gun battery locations. This particular tower monitored