Like all lookout towers, this one was placed to look far out to sea. Today, there is still a great view.Brian Kelly
Repurposing a building is always an interesting exercise, but when the building is a World War II military-use tower, it’s a challenge on another whole level.
“This is a vertical land yacht,” Sherry Kelly laughs as she walks towards the front door of the 165-foot tower that crowns the hill beside her and her husband’s home. A Pharmacy PhD who works on transplant issues in biotech, she is married to Brian Kelly, president of the Kelly Automotive Group. The empty nesters were searching for a downsizing location when this lot in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts landed on the market.
“We were looking for a little beach house,” Brian says. “We saw this, and could not resist. It’s fun!”
The tower, a prominent waterfront landmark, dates to 1943, when it was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers as part of the defense of Boston Harbor. At one time, the coast of the United States from Eastport, Maine to Corpus Christi, Texas, was lined with Fire Control Towers (fire as in armaments, not flames) that sent the coordinates of enemy ships and submarines to nearby gun battery locations. Of the 36 towers between Halibut Point on Cape Ann and the southern end of Boston Harbor, this is the tallest. It was made even taller when a previous owner added a cupola to make it look more like a lighthouse.
Once a military installation, now the tower is part of home, sweet home.Brian Kelly
When the Kellys bought the tower, the reinforced concrete structure was bare, with eleven 13-by-13 foot rooms stacked atop each other. With design help from the Beverly architectural firms Siemasko + Verbridge, they transformed each of those eleven rooms into delightful guest accommodations. Sherry’s “land yacht” concept provided the design inspiration: each room features the finishes, fittings and motifs of a luxury vessel. This includes cleats as door handles, porthole windows and mirrors, bathroom doors labeled “Head,” teak and holly flooring polished to a high gloss, crisp blue and white upholstery, and built-in beds and seating.
Stairs climb to the seventh floor; at the higher levels, ladders do the job. All but the top level’s rooms are square, and the ninth and eleventh floors have encircling outdoor decks. While the Kellys installed air-conditioning, plumbing, heating and electrical systems, the structure itself is as strong as when it was built during World War II.
“We were up here in a big storm recently, when the wind was howling,” Sherry says. “There was no movement whatsoever.”
Once it was part of our national defenses. But now, this tower is just for fun.