Pemaquid Point Lighthouse

Bristol, Maine

Note: It was rainy, foggy the day were visited.

Pemaquid Point, with its dramatic streaks of granite reaching to the sea, shaped by massive movements thousands of years ago, would be a fascinating place to visit even without its pretty white lighthouse. The spot is one of the most frequently visited attractions of the Maine coast, receiving about 100,000 visitors each year.

The name "Pemaquid" is said to have had its origins in an Abenaki Indian word for "situated far out." Immigrants from Bristol, England, established a settlement at Pemaquid in 1631. The village had as many as 200 people by the 1670s, but Abenaki Indians burned it during King Philip's War. The settlement was rebuilt but suffered further attacks from the Indians and the French, and it was abandoned before 1700. It was resettled in 1729.

Today, the area is part of the town of Bristol, incorporated in 1765. The point, at the entrance to Muscongus Bay to the east and Johns Bay to the west, was the scene of many shipwrecks through the centuries, including the 1635 wreck of the British ship Angel Gabriel. In May 1826, as maritime trade, fishing, and the shipping of lumber were increasing in midcoast Maine, Congress appropriated $4,000 for the building of a lighthouse at Pemaquid Point. The land was purchased from Samuel and Sarah Martin-descendents of survivors of the Angel Gabriel-for $90.

Jeremiah Berry of Thomaston was contracted to build the conical rubblestone tower, along with a keeper's dwelling, also built of stone. The original stone tower didn't last long, possibly because Berry may have used salt water to mix his lime mortar. The contract for a new tower in 1835 stipulated that the mortar was "never to have been wet with salt water." A conical stone tower was built that year by Joseph Berry of Georgetown, who was the nephew of the builder of the first tower.

The height of the 1835 tower was 30 feet to the lantern deck, with its diameter of 16 feet at the base and 10 feet at the top. The tower was given four windows and a wooden stairway of "good sound hard pine." Atop the tower, an octagonal, domed iron lantern was installed.

A new lantern was installed in 1856, and the multiple lamps and reflectors were replaced by a fourth-order Fresnel lens with a single lamp. The original keeper's house was replaced by a wood-frame dwelling during the following year.

Bell Tower

A fog bell was added to the station in 1897, and steam engines were installed to operate the bell. Apparently this system didn't work very well, because in 1899 a striking machine was installed, powered by a hand-cranked clockwork mechanism. The bell house built in 1897 was adapted with the addition of a tall tower to enclose the weights for the new mechanism.

Oil House

Leroy S. Elwell was keeper in 1934 when the light became one of the earliest in Maine to be converted to automatic acetylene gas operation. Sidney Baldwin wrote in Casting Off from Boothbay Harbor: "There was a wail of grief all along the coast when the government in its policy of cutting down the Lighthouse Service and transferring it to the Coast Guard electrified Pemaquid Light. There is a big keeper's house standing empty. The light flashes by day and night with no one to guard it. The necessary work of cleaning the lenses and making minor repairs is done by a visiting light keeper."

The house didn't remain empty for too long. In March 1940, residents voted at a town meeting to authorize Bristol's selectmen to purchase the property, except for the lighthouse tower. The town made annual payments for four years, totaling $1,639. The surrounding property became the town's Lighthouse Park, and the keeper's house eventually was converted into the Fishermen's Museum. The museum opened in 1972 and has been operated since then by volunteers from the local area. The museum houses exhibits on the history of the local fishing and lobstering industries, as well as pictures of all the lighthouses on the Maine coast and a fourth-order Fresnel lens from Baker Island Light.

The roof of the bell house and its weight tower were badly damaged in a storm in April 1991, and later that year Hurricane Bob destroyed the structures. The structures were reconstructed in the following year. The bell house, with exhibits inside, is opened to the public in summer. The Coast Guard had removed the fog bell in 1937, but a smaller bell was later acquired and displayed on the bell house.

In May 2000, the lighthouse tower was licensed by the Coast Guard to the American Lighthouse Foundation (ALF). Around the same time, the Coast Guard hired P & G Masonry and Scaffold of Scarborough, Maine, and workers replaced lantern glass and painted the tower. Under the leadership of Dick Melville, a local resident, a chapter of ALF, the Friends of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, was formed. The group soon restored the entryway to the tower and began holding open houses. "I think such an exceptional part of our history should be maintained and be open to the public," Melville told the Portland Press Herald. Melville died in 2005, but other dedicated volunteers have carried on his legacy.

Pemaquid Point Light became the first lighthouse ever to appear on American currency in 2003, when its image appeared on the official Maine quarter. Among the speakers at a dedication held at Lighthouse Park were Maine's Governor John Baldacci, Henrietta Holsman Fore, director of the U.S. Mint, and American Lighthouse Foundation President Tim Harrison.

Volunteers of the Friends of Pemaquid Point Lighthouse (a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation) manage the tower only. Volunteers open the tower in season (Memorial Day to Columbus Day) to the public every day from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. There is no charge to climb the tower but donations are welcomed.