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A CENTURY-OLD RESCUE STATION sits on Wood Island at the mouth of the Piscataqua River at Kittery Point. The long-shuttered building, once an outpost of the defunct United States Life-Saving Service, was decommissioned in 1948. The structure has been undergoing restoration, with plans to turn it into a maritime museum.
A CENTURY-OLD RESCUE STATION sits on Wood Island at the mouth of the Piscataqua River at Kittery Point. The long-shuttered building, once an outpost of the defunct United States Life-Saving Service, was decommissioned in 1948. The structure has been undergoing restoration, with plans to turn it into a maritime museum.
KITTERY

HISTORIC PRESERVATION CARPENTER Arron Sturgis works on the porch of a century-old rescue station undergoing restoration on Wood Island at Kittery Point.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION CARPENTER Arron Sturgis works on the porch of a century-old rescue station undergoing restoration on Wood Island at Kittery Point.
Along-shuttered, century-old rescue station on the border of Maine and New Hampshire is being restored with plans to turn it into a maritime history museum.

The building is located on Wood Island near the entrance of the Piscataqua River, on the Maine side of the state divide. It was once an outpost of the long gone United States Life-Saving Service before being decommissioned in 1948 and then falling into neglect for decades.

 
 
The first phase of a restoration overseen by a local group called the Wood Island Life Saving Station Association will be completed this month.

The association, which is managing the project for the town of Kittery, anticipates the project will be completed by 2019 at a cost of $2.5 million; it is being funded by state and federal grants and private donors, said president Sam Reid. Work began in May.

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The United States Life-Saving Service, for which the station was originally built, was created to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners. It merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Act to Create the Coast Guard.

HISTORIC PRESERVATION carpenter Jake Humphrey stands on a scaffold at a rescue station undergoing restoration.
HISTORIC PRESERVATION carpenter Jake Humphrey stands on a scaffold at a rescue station undergoing restoration.
The Wood Island Station was designed to launch boats to save imperiled mariners. In World War II, it was used to keep an eye out for German submarines.

It is the only station in the country that still has a marine railway — a launch that was used to send rescue boats into the water, Reid said.

THE FIRST PHASE of the restoration overseen by a local group called the Wood Island Life Saving Station Association will be completed this month. The association anticipates the project will be completed by 2019 at a cost of $2.5 million.
THE FIRST PHASE of the restoration overseen by a local group called the Wood Island Life Saving Station Association will be completed this month. The association anticipates the project will be completed by 2019 at a cost of $2.5 million.
The restoration plan represents a chance to save a unique piece of maritime history and allow it to be opened to the public, Reid said.

“The building is now saved,” Reid said. “Now, the issue is can you create enough value to fully restore it and open it to the public.”

Gary Beers, chairman of the town council in Kittery and a supporter of the restoration project, said it is a chance to save a historic site and celebrate the area’s centuries-old maritime history.

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“This is maintaining components of our history,” Beers said. “Retaining that for posterity is valuable.”

Saving lives

• THE UNITED STATES Life-Saving Service was created to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners. It merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Act to Create the Coast Guard.




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