Fort Point Lighthouse

Stockton Springs, Maine

Fort Point Light was established in 1836 in Stockton Springs, at the west side of the mouth of the Penobscot River, to aid vessels bound for Bangor, a leading lumber port. The town of Stockton Springs was also a lumber port and a shipping point for Maine's potato industry. The lighthouse gets its name from adjacent Fort Pownall, built by order of Massachusetts Governor Pownall (Maine at that time was part of Massachusetts) in 1759 to guard against the French.

The first lighthouse was a granite tower. The first keeper was William Clewly, who had sold his land to the government for the station. The present 31-foot square brick lighthouse was built in 1857. A new wood-frame two-story keeper's house, attached to the tower, was built the same year.

In 1890, a bell tower and a barn were added, and an oil house was built in 1897. All of these buildings are still standing, making Fort Point Light an unusually well-preserved light station. The pyramidal bell tower is one of the few left in New England and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bell, replaced by a foghorn, hangs outside the tower.

Bell Tower

Fog Bell

Oil House

The lighthouse's 1857 Fresnel lens remains in use. Because of its beautiful and accessible location, Fort Point Light was a sought-after station for keepers. A total of only four men kept the light from the 1880s into the 1930s. The light was automated in 1988, and Larry Baum was the last Coast Guard keeper at the family station.

The lighthouse grounds are now part of Fort Point State Park. Since 1988, the resident "keepers" for the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands have been Lawrence "Terry" Cole and Jeralyn Cole. Terry was the keeper at Fort Point Light back when he was in the Coast Guard in the early 1970s, and was thrilled to come back to the station. One of the Coles' daughters was married at the lighthouse.

Fort Point Lighthouse is a square tower on the outside, but inside its brick lining is round, with a circular iron stairway. No other lighthouse in Maine fits this description. (Dunkirk Lighthouse in New York, and Watch Hill and Beavertail lights in Rhode Island are other square lighthouses with round interiors and stairways.)

Under the Maine Lights Program coordinated by the Island Institute of Rockland, the lighthouse became the property of the State of Maine Bureau of Parks & Land in 1998. The property is part of the Fort Point State Historic Site , (207) 941-4014.

The light and automatic fog signal remain active aids to navigation and are maintained by the Coast Guard. There are signs on U.S. Route 1 in Stockton Springs pointing the way to Fort Point State Park and the lighthouse, and a 200-foot pier is available for visitors arriving by boat.