Fairport Harbor

Surrounded by water on three sides, Fairport Harbor, Ohio, was once a gateway to the Western Reserve, welcoming more ships to its shores than Cleveland. These ships brought immigrants-Irish, English, and others-who saw the harbor's towering 1825 lighthouse, one of the town's two lighthouses on the National Registry of Historic Sites, as a beacon for freedom, hope, and opportunity. Indeed, the town served a prominent role in the Underground Railroad, helping southern slaves along their way to fre