The Fort Point Light, or Fort Point Light Station, is located in Fort Point State Park, in

Stockton Springs, Maine Stockton Springs is a town in Waldo County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,533 at the 2020 census. Stockton Springs is home to Fort Point State Park and Fort Point Light, both located on Fort Point, a peninsula on Cape Jellison. ...

. A

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Ligh ...

at this point has served as an active

aid to navigation In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. The ...

since 1835; the present lighthouse dates to 1857, and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Setting

Fort Point State Park is located at the easternmost tip of

Cape Jellison Cape Jellison is a peninsula that juts into Penobscot Bay on the coast of Maine. In colonial times it was known as Wasaumkeag Point. It is part of the town of Stockton Springs, between Searsport and Bucksport, in the upper mid-coast region ...

, a triangular peninsula which juts into

Penobscot Bay Penobscot Bay () is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean in south central Maine, a stretch known as Midcoast Maine, in a broader Atlantic region known as Down East. The bay originates from the mouth of Maine's Penobscot River, ...

at the mouth of the

Penobscot River The Penobscot River (Abenaki: ''Pαnawάhpskewtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 22, 2011 river in the U.S. state of Maine. Including the river's W ...

. The park, established in 1974, includes, in addition to the lighthouse and related station buildings, the ruins of

Fort Pownall Fort Pownall was a British fortification built during the French and Indian War, whose remains are located at Fort Point State Park in Stockton Springs, Maine. The fort was named for Governor Thomas Pownall, who oversaw its construction. It ne ...

, built in 1757. The lighthouse is set just southwest of the easternmost point of the peninsula, and south of the fort's remains.

Description

The light station consists of a lighthouse with integrated keeper's house, a barn, an oil house, and a bell house. The square brick lighthouse tower is in height (measured to the height of the lantern), with a square parapet surrounding the octagonal lantern house. The lantern house is capped by an octagonal roof with a spherical ventilator. A narrow single-story brick work room connects the tower to the keeper's house, a -story wood-frame structure with its main gable oriented north–south. Its main facade, facing west, is three bays wide, with the entrance set in the rightmost bay in an enclosed projecting gabled vestibule. A single story ell projects to the building's rear. Just east of the house stands a small barn, that is known to have been standing here since the 1890s. Also standing to the west is the small brick oilhouse, with a single door in one side, and pent gable ends on its roof. Further to the east stands the bell house, a roughly pyramidal wood-frame structure finished in wooden shingles. The oil house was built in 1897, the bell house in 1890.

History

The Fort Point Light Station was authorized by Congress in 1834, and built on land purchased from William Clewley, the first keeper. It was the first river light in Maine, built at a time when traffic on the bay and river were increasing. The present tower and keeper's house were built in 1857 as a replacement for the first lighthouse. The original lamp was replaced in 1935, and electrified in 1950. It was automated in 1988 and remains an active aid to navigation. The light's fourth order

fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, d ...

is one of only eight fresnel lenses still in use in Maine. The original fog signal, a cast iron bell, has been replaced by a

fog horn A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. ...

in the same building. The lighthouse was leased to the state by the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

in 1989, and sold to it in 1998.

References

{{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1857 Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Lighthouses in Waldo County, Maine Tourist attractions in Waldo County, Maine National Register of Historic Places in Waldo County, Maine 1857 establishments in Maine

Setting

Description

History

See also

References