GEORGETOWN

Lighthouses — regal outliers along the rocky coast — have been considered Maine institutions since Portland Headlight was lit in 1791, and are featured prominently in artwork, postcards, T-shirts and reproduced in every form of tourist kitsch.

Less remembered are the houses of the keepers who tended the lights that speckle the horizon on their barren precipes, and many of the historic sites have fallen into disrepair. The keeper’s house on Perkins Island, in Georgetown, however, has a very different fate in store.

“The exterior of the house will be transformed,” said Bob Trapani Jr., executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation, in an extensive restoration project ALF has planned for the Perkins Island keeper’s house, set to begin in September. “It will look like it did in its heyday,” he said.

“People look at the lighthouses and think, ‘Wow,’ their structures are so impressive,” said Trapani. “But we have a lot of light stations that have lost their keeper’s houses over the years.”

Perkins Island is located two miles upstream from the mouth of the Kennebec River. The island’s lightstation is comprised of the lighthouse and keeper’s house, built in 1898, a fog bell tower, built in 1902, an oil house built in 1906, and a barn. A boathouse once also stood on the site, but was washed away in a severe storm.

The Perkins Island keeper’s house restoration project was spearheaded — and funded almost entirely — by Tom and Jaana Sheehan, who moved to Georgetown a year ago.

“My wife and I were boating by the island and saw how beautiful it was, and we thought it was a shame that it wasn’t in better shape because it was such a beautiful structure,” said Tom Sheehan. “The house is boarded up with big white Xs painted over the windows and the roof is caved in over one of the porches,” he said, adding that the entire structure was in dire need of repainting.

“So we read up about it online and decided to see what we could do to preserve it,” said Sheehan, and added that uncovering ownership of the lighthouse and keeper’s house was no simple task.

“We called the state, we called the town hall and the historic preservation commission,” said Sheehan, and he eventually found that the lighthouse is owned by the U.S. Coast Guard and licensed to the American Lighthouse Foundation, while the land and other structures of the light station are owned by the Maine Bureau for Parks and Lands.

Sheehan said momentum picked up when he talked to Brian Marcaurelle, the program director for the Maine Island Trail Association, and teamed up with the American Lighthouse Foundation to coordinate the project, and the Friends of Perkins Island Lighthouse, who had worked with ALF in the past to rehabilitate the station’s fog bell tower.

With permission for a restoration project gained, the Sheehans donated $30,000 to get the project rolling. Estimates from J.B. Leslie Company, a South Berwick-based contractor specializing in a historic restoration, totaled $43,000 for maintenance and restoration alone and an additional $20,000 to fit the building with security screens and doors.

To clean and repair the roof slats and ridge caps is approximately $4,600, chimney repairs are estimated at $2,800, repairs to the all porches and walkways is near $13,000 in total, while repairing siding is estimated at $4,200.

Among the biggest ticket items for general restoration and maintenance is repainting the structure, to a tune of $8,000, and providing transportation to and from the island and accommodations for the contractors, estimated at $9,000.

To provide and install 11 security screens is estimated to cost in excess of $10,000, installing two security doors is estimated at $2,650, while replacing windows is expected to cost nearly $4,000, and the transportation and lodging associated with this work is estimated near $3,000.

“It is extremely important to me that this project is done right and completed while we have momentum,” said Sheehan in an email. Restoring the lighthouse will benefit the entire community, he said, though “for me it’s about saving a piece of history and giving it the care and attention it deserves.”

Upon receipt of the restoration estimates, the Sheehans increased their donation to $50,000 to see the keeper’s house repaired and protected.

“We’ll be making some tweaks to the scope of the work, so the complete project comes in around $50,000,” said Trapani, “thanks to the amazing generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Sheehan. That kind of dedication … it’s just not common.”

The restoration project is expected to begin in early September and is estimated to take between four and six weeks to complete.

“The biggest reason for doing this, for us, is to remind people of the families that lived here,” said Trapani. “This is a place that is still back in time — electricity never got out to the island and the house is in remarkable shape,” considering that the last keeper was taken off the island in 1959, when the lighthouse was automated, he said. “It’s a testament to the people who built it.”

Eager for the work to start, Sheehan said, “The biggest issue, to my perspective, is that it’s tough to get the word out to the community and make people aware that this is going to happen, which would in turn help generate some funds.

“We upped our donation because we saw the quote and if we tried to restore it piece by piece, it’s just harder to raise funds and keep the momentum going,” he said. “We’ll move forward and if they have to trim a few things here and there — so be it.”

To support the restoration work at Perkins Island, donations can be mailed to American Lighthouse Foundation, P.O. Box 565, Rockland, ME 04841. Checks should be made payable to American Lighthouse Foundation, with Perkins Island project in the memo line. Donations can also be made online by visiting the American Lighthouse Foundation’s website at www.lighthousefoundation.org.