Harborlight Homes receives $2M gift for Lighthouse Center

BEVERLY — Harborlight Homes has received a $2 million donation to help build a community center at its Anchor Point affordable housing development on Sohier Road.

The donation was made by Mollie Byrnes and the Tower Family Fund. The money will go toward construction of The Lighthouse Center, where residents of Anchor Point will be offered services including child care, educational programs and job training.

Byrnes, a longtime North Shore resident, said she was “utterly amazed” when she toured Anchor Point and saw the plans for The Lighthouse Center.

“I am happy to help a solid, wonderful organization put a roof over more citizens’ heads,” Byrnes said in a statement. “I especially admire the fact that so many wonderful and useful services will be located at this project so close to the affordable homes, to make it easier for the residents to access them.”

The Anchor Point campus consists of three buildings — two affordable apartment buildings and The Lighthouse Center. The first apartment building opened in 2022; the second is under construction.

The two buildings will provide a total of 77 two- and three-bedroom homes. Harborlight Homes is raising money for The Lighthouse Center through a capital campaign with a goal of $7 million.

Byrnes, along with her sister, Cindy Doyle, and Doyle’s husband, Robert, are the trustees of the Tower Family Fund, a private foundation that originated with Mollie and Cindy’s parents, Peter and Elizabeth Tower. Byrnes and her late husband, John, were also longtime supporters of Pathways for Children, which is partnering with Harborlight Homes in the child care programming at The Lighthouse Center.

Andrew DeFranza, executive director of Harborlight Homes, said the $2 million gift will be “game-changing” in the nonprofit’s efforts to build The Lighthouse Center.

“We are closer to our goal than we have been in over two years, thanks to the extraordinary generosity of Mrs. Byrnes and the Tower Family Fund,” DeFranza said. “The confidence and trust Mrs. Byrnes has invested in Harborlight Homes, and this project, still overwhelms us. It is as humbling as it is transformative.”

In addition to partnering with Pathways for Children to offer affordable child care at The Lighthouse Center, Harborlight Homes will also collaborate with North Shore Community College to offer job skills and certificate programs.

Other services will include adult educational programs such as GED and ESL; financial and credit counseling; public health nurse access; classrooms and meeting spaces; children’s after-school activities; teen/adult mentoring; skill building for income growth and asset building; and community gardens, sport courts and walking paths.

DeFranza said the housing at Anchor Point is critical to family stability, and The Lighthouse Center answers the question, “What is next?”

“Providing accessibility, opportunity, learning, and community is essential to helping all families and their children reach their potential,” he said.

Staff Writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2535, by email at pleighton@salemnews.com, or on Twitter at @heardinbeverly.

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