Ever wonder what the view is like from the top of your favorite lighthouse? Or what the inside of a 100-year-old keeper’s house looks like?
On Saturday, we’ll all get a chance to peek inside some prominent symbols of Maine’s allure and history during the Fourth Annual Maine Open Lighthouse Day.
From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (some sites have slightly different hours), 22 lighthouse sites will be open to the public. For many of the lighthouses, it’s the only time of the year that people are allowed inside the structures.
Admission to the towers and their accompanying keepers’ houses and other buildings is free, but you’ll have to pay for access to some state or town parks that house the sites. And for lighthouses located on islands, the transportation is up to you.
The Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland will also be open as part of the festivities.
If you’re trying to decide which lighthouse to visit, we’ve assembled a list of all of them below, along with locations, the year they were built, their height, and interesting tidbits you can use to impress fellow tour-takers while you wait in line.
BROWN’S HEAD LIGHT
LOCATION: Off North Haven Road, Vinalhaven Island
YEAR BUILT: 1832
HEIGHT: 20 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: The keeper’s house, built in 1857, and the oil house, built in 1903, are both still standing.
BURNT COAT HARBOR LIGHTHOUSE
LOCATION: Lighthouse Road, Swan’s Island
YEAR BUILT: 1872
HEIGHT: 32 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: The first keeper, F.A. Allen, and his wife lived at the lighthouse with their nine children. The light used to have a twin, but one was taken out in 1884 after mariners complained that the twin lights were confusing.
BURNT ISLAND LIGHT STATION
LOCATION: Entrance to Boothbay Harbor (offshore)
YEAR BUILT: 1821
HEIGHT: 30 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: This is the second-oldest lighthouse in Maine that hasn’t been rebuilt. (The oldest is Portland Head Light, built in 1791).
CURTIS ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE
LOCATION: Curtis Island, Penobscot Bay
YEAR BUILT: 1835
HEIGHT: 25 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: The island is named after publishing magnate and philanthropist Cyrus Curtis, who summered in Camden.
DICE HEAD LIGHT
LOCATION: Battle Avenue, Castine
YEAR BUILT: 1828; rebuilt several times
HEIGHT: 51 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: The lighthouse was sold in the 1930s, but has been restored by the town of Castine, and was re-lighted in 2008.
DOUBLING POINT LIGHT STATION
LOCATION: Doubling Point Road, Arrowsic Island
YEAR BUILT: 1898
HEIGHT: 23 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: In 1999, the tower was lifted off the foundation with a crane, put on a barge and moved into storage while contractors reset the 12,000-pound granite blocks at the base.
FORT POINT LIGHT
LOCATION: Fort Point Road, Stockton Springs
YEAR BUILT: 1857
HEIGHT: 31 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: This squared light tower was named for nearby Fort Pownall, and is attached to the keeper’s house by an enclosed passageway.
GRINDLE POINT LIGHT
LOCATION: Ferry Road, Islesboro (ferry from Lincolnville)
YEAR BUILT: 1874
HEIGHT: 39 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: Located on picturesque Gilkey Harbor, the light keeper’s house is home to the Sailors’ Memorial Museum.
KENNEBEC RIVER RANGE LIGHTS
LOCATION: Doubling Point Road, Arrowsic
YEAR BUILT: 1898
HEIGHT: 13 feet and 21 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: These are the only pair of “range lights” among Maine’s 64 lighthouses, and are among the very few wooden lighthouses in the country. The front light flashes continuously, while the back light shows six quick flashes, then pauses.
LITTLE RIVER LIGHT
LOCATION: Cutler Harbor; accessible by boat only
YEAR BUILT: 1876
HEIGHT: 41 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: The 1888 keeper’s house is available for overnight stays. Find out more at littleriverlight.org. On Saturday, this lighthouse will be open from 9 a.m. to noon.
MARSHALL POINT LIGHTHOUSE
LOCATION: Marshall Point Road, Port Clyde
YEAR BUILT: 1832; rebuilt in 1858
HEIGHT: 24 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: The scene only lasted a few seconds in the film, but during the title character’s cross-country run in “Forrest Gump” (1994), the Marshall Point Lighthouse made a cameo as the eastern-most point of his journey.
MONHEGAN ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE
LOCATION: Monhegan Island. Take a boat from Port Clyde, New Harbor or Boothbay Harbor. Open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
YEAR BUILT: 1822
HEIGHT: 47 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: Originally, the light came from burning sperm whale oil. Now, it’s powered by solar panels.
OWLS HEAD LIGHTHOUSE
LOCATION: Owls Head Light State Park, Owls Head
YEAR BUILT: 1825; rebuilt in 1852
HEIGHT: 30 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: This lighthouse still uses a Fresnel light, which was installed in 1856 and produces a fixed white beam.
PEMAQUID POINT LIGHTHOUSE
LOCATION: Route 130, Bristol
YEAR BUILT: 1827; rebuilt in 1835
HEIGHT: 38 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: This lighthouse appears on the Maine state quarter issued in 2003.
PORTLAND BREAKWATER LIGHTHOUSE (BUG LIGHT)
LOCATION: Bug Light Park, Madison Street, South Portland
YEAR BUILT: 1855; rebuilt in 1875
HEIGHT: 26 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: This tiny lighthouse helps guide ships into busy Portland Harbor. It got its nickname, “Bug Light,” because of its small size.
PORTLAND HEAD LIGHT
LOCATION: 1000 Shore Road, Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth
YEAR BUILT: 1791
HEIGHT: Original tower, 72 feet; raised 20 more feet in 1865
ILLUMINATING FACT: Photogenic Portland Head, located at the entrance to Portland Harbor, was commissioned by George Washington and was originally lit with 16 whale oil lamps. It’s one of the most photographed lighthouses in the United States.
ROCKLAND BREAKWATER LIGHT
LOCATION: On a granite breakwater in Rockland Harbor. Turn onto Waldo Avenue from Route 1, then turn right on Samoset Road.
YEAR BUILT: First temporary light built in 1888; permanent light built between 1900 and 1902
HEIGHT: 25 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: The light was made in New Zealand, and is visible for up to 17 miles.
SEGUIN ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE
LOCATION: Two miles offshore from Popham Beach; accessible via Fish ‘N’ Trip Charters’ Seguin Island Ferry or by private boat
YEAR BUILT: 1795; rebuilt in 1819 and again in 1857
HEIGHT: 53 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: This lighthouse’s lens is an extremely rare 1857 First Order Fresnel lens made of 282 individual glass prisms. It’s also Maine’s tallest lighthouse, and is said to be haunted by a 19th-century keeper who killed his wife with an ax after being driven insane by her constant piano playing on the isolated island. (Some say they can still hear the wife’s playing too.)
SPRING POINT LEDGE LIGHT
LOCATION: At the end of a granite breakwater at Fort Preble in South Portland. Turn right off Broadway onto Pickett Street, then left onto Fort Road.
YEAR BUILT: 1898
HEIGHT: 54 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: Keepers used to exercise by running 56 laps around the tower’s main deck, which they figured was about a mile.
WEST QUODDY HEAD LIGHT
LOCATION: Quoddy Head State Park, 973 South Lubec Road, Lubec
YEAR BUILT: 1808; rebuilt in 1858
HEIGHT: 49 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: This lighthouse is located on the easternmost point of land in the contiguous U.S., so it’s the first part of the country to see the sunrise every morning.
WHITEHEAD LIGHTHOUSE
LOCATION: Entrance to Penobscot Bay, Whitehead Island (offshore)
YEAR BUILT: 1804; rebuilt in 1831 and again in 1852
HEIGHT: 41 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: Ellis Dolph, the lighthouse’s first keeper, illegally sold spermaceti oil used for the light to businesses in Thomaston.
WOOD ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE
LOCATION: Biddeford Pool (offshore)
YEAR BUILT: 1808; rebuilt in 1835 and again in 1858
HEIGHT: 47 feet
ILLUMINATING FACT: At one time, a French bootlegger sold his hooch on the island to passing fishermen — until the night a drunken group of sailors burned his building down.
MAINE LIGHTHOUSE MUSEUM
LOCATION: One Park Drive, Rockland. 594-3301; mainelighthouse museum.org
ILLUMINATING FACT: The museum is home to an impressive collection of lighthouse artifacts and mementos, including a number of rare Fresnel lenses.
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