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Shelburne Museum's Colchester Reef Lighthouse and Tuckaway General Store

The Colchester Reef Lighthouse. Three miles off Allen Point, southernmost tip of Grande Isle, and just under one mile of Colchester Point, lies one of the most treacherous reefs in Lake Champlain. Here in 1871 the Lighthouse Service erected a frame structure strong enough to withstand the the sudden gales of spring and fall and the pressure of the winter ice floes. For 62 years, eleven different keepers kept the light going until the lighthouse was decommisioned in 1933. Electricity had, at last, reached Colchester Reef.

The Tuckaway General Store and Apothecary Shop. A handsome Greek revival example from nearby Shelburne Center, this building for years served as the village post office. In 1952, it traveled 1/4 mile over a specially laid railroad track to be pressed into service as the Museum's General Store. Typically a multiple use building, the store includes a barber shop, post office, tap room, doctor's and dentist's offices and an Apothecary Shop. With such a collection of functions it is easy to see how the general store was second only to the meeting house as a community gathering place.

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