"They all served a purpose and helped build the country," Wright says of lighthouses. "If it weren't for the maritime shipping, we wouldn't have grown."

The replicas, though, are not just nods to nautical history.

"These are America's castles, palaces," he says.

And in turn, they provide a way for people to decorate their own castles - filling a bay window or standing proudly within a flower bed.

"They go all over," Wright says. "I have nightlights in children's rooms. I have regular flashing-light kits in people's bedrooms. They turn it on and relax."

 

Tammy Repp received a replica of the Nauset Beach, Mass., lighthouse this past Christmas from her husband, Mike.

A "huge... enormous" surprise, she says it perfectly tapped into her feelings about lighthouses.

"I love them all, and I use them in my artwork," says Repp, who creates prints and decorative wall art.

The piece, which depicts what she considers "probably my very favorite" lighthouse, quickly found a place in the Repps' Somers home.

"It's nestled right next to one of our fireplaces," she says.

Repp says she admires Wright's artistry and attention to detail.

"People don't believe it's wooden," Repp says. "When you look at it, it looks like it's cast or molded."

She says lighthouses symbolize all kinds of things, including a sense of peace and a sense of history, but usually evoke a common response.

"They make people happy," Repp says.

Wright started making the lighthouses three years ago. He retired in the summer of 2005, as a patrol sergeant, after 25 years with the New Castle Police Department.

"I wanted something to retire to," says Wright, who at 49 also is a volunteer firefighter with the Millwood Fire Company.

He launched his Web site last year and began exhibiting on the craft-show circuit in earnest this year.

Wright had come to love lighthouses in recent years, primarily through traveling with his wife, Beth, so he decided to combine this new attraction with some longtime skills.

"I've always been handy in the shop," Wright says, tapping on the sturdy pine table in their dining room. "I built this."

He invested in tools, took time to study and had a lot of trial-and-error. He started with the Stratford Point, Conn., lighthouse, making several examples and learning a lot along the way.

Once the base is cut, he then continues the process that includes applying exterior house paint, windows and doors.

Reflective tape forms the window panes.

"That is tape they put on the police cars," he says. "Guess where I got that?"

Each model has several lighting and wiring options, making them suitable for indoor or outdoor use.

Right now, the company features more than 40 examples, though Wright also creates by commission.

Provide a photograph and, Wright says, "I'm willing to take it on."

Wright likes to photograph his pieces on the site of the originals; otherwise, he carts his creations to places such as Croton Point Park or the New Rochelle waterfront.

These are then used on his Web site.

It's different from the photography he did during his police days.

"This is a little better," he says. "They get a little upset if you pose things in crime-scene photographs."

The lighthouses, fully made by Wright, take two to four weeks to complete and cost $275 to $1,475, though most are $300 to $400.

"They're too expensive to be a spur-of-the-moment thing," he says.

He points to his biggest, the Hatteras, and the most elaborate, the Thomas Point Shoal, Md., as those he's proudest of.

Each one, though, earns his respect, based on a study of its creation to its history, which he likes to share.

"Tarrytown, here by the Tappan Zee Bridge, was a family station," he says, talking about how the keeper's children would be rowed to shore to attend school - or walk on winter ice.

These glimpses into history continue to fascinate Wright.

"It's just a totally different world than what we're living in today," he says.

But one he likes to promote, especially through the shows.

Michelle Tomlins has headed up the Cold Spring Harvest Festival the past three of the event's 30 years.

When it came to choosing exhibitors for the Sept. 29 event, Tomlins says Wright's collection struck a chord.

"It just looks beautiful," she says. "His work looks to be a very good quality. It's very unusual."

It will also make a good addition to the event, she adds, where vendors fill the sidewalks of Main Street to offer paintings, pottery, jewelry, photography and wind chimes.

"We try to get a variety that will appeal to a variety of people," she says.

Lighthouses, she says, have an almost universal appeal.

"I know several people who collect lighthouses, and whenever I go on vacation, I end up photographing them," Tomlins says.

Beth Wright, who works the craft shows with her husband, says the search is never over for new lighthouses to create. Shows provide constant ideas.

"It's people asking 'Do you have?,' 'Do you have?,' 'Do you have?,'" she says.

And often, Wright does.

As he walks through his yard, he passes the Stratford Point and Tarrytown lights in the front yard to reach the red-and-white striped model holding court over a small pond in the backyard.

"That's the one that got us started in making lighthouses," he says. Travels to the Assateague and Chincoteague regions of Maryland and Virginia spurred it all, especially the Assateague lighthouse.

At first he was drawn to the look, then he began to learn about the lighthouse's history, which dated back to 1867.

"This sort of branched from American history to Civil War to lighthouses," he says.

And the fascination only seems to grow, as Beth Wright says.

"A lot of people have this enormous attachments to them," she says. "A lot of people, like I do, just get this peaceful feeling when you see them."

Just look to the Wrights' backyard, and their favorite piece.

"We get up in the middle of the night - and there's Assateague," Steve Wright says.

Keeping watch.