Here’s how you can stay overnight at — and possibly own — a 143-year-old lighthouse
Kevin Ferias, owner of the historic (and supposedly haunted) Borden Flats Light, is looking to pass the torch to a local lightkeeper.
As a lifelong “fanatic” who has photographed nearly every lighthouse in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Kevin Ferias wanted to do something special with his wife for their 25th wedding anniversary in 2017.
Initially he tried to book a stay at the Rose Island Lighthouse in Newport, but “they were completely sold out,” he said. By chance, a Google search brought him to another piece of maritime history right here in Massachusetts: Borden Flats Light. Little did he know that their anniversary trip would lead to him owning the now 143-year-old lighthouse located at the mouth of the Taunton River in Mount Hope Bay.
Built in 1881 and nestled between Fall River and Somerset, the “sparkplug-style” lighthouse is registered with the National Register of Historic Places. It’s still in operation, serving as an aid to navigation for the Coast Guard, which maintains the lighthouse’s modern light system in its lantern room, where a light flashes every 2.5 seconds from dusk until dawn. Borden Flats Light is also an official weather station for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Fall River, according to Ferias, who grew up in Warren, R.I., and resides in nearby Swansea. While he was familiar with the lighthouse, Ferias didn’t fall in love with it until his anniversary getaway.
“When I first walked in when we were staying in there, something hit me. . . . I felt immediately at home,” Ferias said.
“My wife was upset at me because we were sitting, enjoying the sunset, and everything was looking beautiful. I grabbed my camera and before I knew it, I was gone for 45 minutes,” he added. “When I experienced the beauty and the warmth and the aura that was around that place, I just couldn’t get it out of my mind.”
During his stay, Ferias struck up a kinship with the lighthouse’s then-owner Nick Korstad, a Portland, Ore., native who purchased Borden Flats Light through a government auction in 2010. The lighthouse, which survived the 1938 New England hurricane, had full-time lightkeepers from 1881 to 1963, according to Ferias, but no longer needed them once it was electrified and fully automated. It eventually was abandoned and fell into disrepair until Korstad took stewardship.
Korstad spent the next seven years restoring the lighthouse, Ferias said, traveling by an inflatable raft each day to make repairs in “an incredible labor of love.” In 2016, Korstad launched the Lighthouse Keepers Overnight Educational Program, where guests can stay overnight in the living quarters located within the light tower itself, one level below the light room, and serve as honorary lightkeepers. Korstad’s restoration efforts earned him the “Keeper of the Light” award in 2018 from the American Lighthouse Foundation.
Korstad went on to purchase the Big Bay Point Lighthouse in Michigan, prompting a decision to sell Borden Flats Light. Several months after Ferias and his wife took their anniversary trip, Korstad called Ferias to see if he had any interest in buying the property.
“I was like, ‘Nick, there’s no way I can afford a lighthouse,’” said Ferias, who works full-time as a media director. “Both of our kids were in college. We didn’t have two nickels to rub together.”
But in the months after Korstad’s call, Ferias couldn’t get the idea out of his head. “I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “I would wake up dreaming about ‘what if.’”
According to Ferias, Korstad had an offer from someone from the West Coast who wanted to turn Borden Flats Light into his “East Coast summerhouse.” Korstad preferred to sell it to a lighthouse enthusiast who would maintain the overnight program, and despite Ferias’s interest, he had trouble finding a bank that would finance the unusual purchase. After months of persistence on Korstad’s end, Ferias eventually took him up on the offer and was able to secure a home equity loan for $240,000, with Korstad willing to part ways with the lighthouse for less than half of his original $500,000 asking price.
“Three days later, we closed on the lighthouse,” said Ferias, who took ownership in May 2018. “It’s been the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Since taking over and continuing the overnight program, Ferias has welcomed guests from all over the world, attracting lighthouse enthusiasts from as far away as Hong Kong and Australia. With the lighthouse located approximately 1,500 feet offshore, Ferias and his assistant ferry guests by boat from the nearby Borden Light Marina in Fall River. Before docking, visitors receive an extensive history tour as they circle the lighthouse. The overnight stays have sold out every year since Ferias took ownership — and the lighthouse is already 70 percent booked for 2025.
Much to his wife’s delight, Ferias has filled the lighthouse with all sorts of nautical knick-knacks that once adorned his mainland home, along with period furnishings and antiques, plus a few modern touches, like a TV with a DVD player and an HD antenna. But for the most part, visitors are “completely off the grid.” There’s no cable or wi-fi, nor is there running water or a shower. (A toilet was installed this year.) The electricity is solar.
“We bring the water out every day, five or six of those five-gallon bottles,” said Ferias, noting how guests can only book for two nights maximum due to the lack of city water access. “I want them to have that feeling of just turning off the rest of the world.”
Ferias affectionally calls Borden Flats Light a “lighthome,” telling guests that “all you have to do is bring your food, your beverages, and a set of clothes, because we’ll have everything else out there.” Visitors can use the outdoor gas grill or cook food in the kitchen, which is furnished with a small refrigerator, a microwave, a gas stove and oven, plus various utensils and kitchenware. Bottled water and coffee are also provided.
For the 2025 season, the lighthouse is available to book for $595 a night in April, May, October, and November, with nightly rates jumping up to $649 for June through September. It closes for the winter in January through March, with select December dates offered upon request, according to its website. Guests are limited to two people per night, and they must be 21 or older. It’s also probably for the best if they’re also OK with ghosts: Two friendly spirits allegedly haunt the lighthouse. Ferias said one is supposedly that of John H. Paul, the lighthouse’s longest serving lightkeeper, at the helm from 1912 to 1927. The other is said to be a little girl named Lucy who died in 1929 after her family’s boat tipped near the lighthouse during a squall. The lightkeeper at the time was unable to save her.
Ferias, 65, said it’s now time for him to pass the torch to another lightkeeper. After some health issues, including “two minor heart attacks,” he’s feeling his age and wants to sail off into retirement. “I’m getting tired,” he said.
After brushing off his wife’s calls to retire over the past few years, Ferias “finally acquiesced this winter” and started seriously entertaining offers, initially putting out feelers to different lighthouse associations and Facebook groups. The property is set to be listed by Sotheby’s International Realty in November, but he’s “in no rush at all” to sell.
That’s because, like the previous owner, he doesn’t want to sell to just anyone.
While there have been some interested parties, including people looking to purchase the lighthouse for use as a private summer home, Ferias said he prefers to sell to someone who will continue the overnight program. He laments that a few potential buyers he’s had discussions with have “run into the same exact situation as I have, [with] banks not wanting to do the financing.”
“It’s getting to the point where it seems like it’s going to have to probably be a wealthier person,” said Ferias. He said organizations like the United States Lighthouse Society and the American Lighthouse Foundation have told him the lighthouse is “worth a minimum of $1.5 million, and maybe upwards of $2 million.”
“I felt that was a little greedy, to be honest, and so I basically have started the price out at $1.2 million,” said Ferias, who is “willing to negotiate with anyone who seriously will sign a contract saying they’re going to keep it running as is.”
With no plans to retire until the end of next year, Ferias is holding out hope to find the right buyer, adding, “In my heart, the lightkeeper should be local.”
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