Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine

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Date added: January 21, 2025
Light Tower and Fog Signal House West and South Sides (1991)

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Great Duck Island Light Station was established in 1890 as a secondary seacoast light strategically located between the primary light on Mount Desert Rock and the approach to Blue Hill Bay and Mount Desert Island.

The construction of Great Duck Island Light Station illustrates the continued effort by the Light-House Board to establish an integral system of navigational aids along the coast of Maine. In its 1885 Annual Report the Board first recognized the need for a light at this location. Three years later the Annual Report pointed to the increased " … importance of Mount Desert and the vicinity as a summer resort", and further stated the need for a fog signal " … not only for the general coastwise commerce, but for the safety of the steamers and yachts frequenting Frenchman's Bay."

Site Description

Prominently situated at the southern end of Great Duck Island, this light station is composed of a circular brick tower with workroom, a detached keeper's house, fog signal building, oil house, and a small shed.

The light tower at Great Duck Island, constructed in 1890, is a cylindrical brick structure that rises to a height of thirty-five-and-a-half feet from its base to the center of the lantern. Punctuated by three small openings (now filled with glass blocks) the tower is capped by a handsome bracketed iron parapet with railing. Centrally located behind the railing is the ten-sided lantern. The narrow brick workroom extends from the west face of the tower. It has an opening below the west gable end and a glass block window on the south side.

Standing at a considerable distance to the north of the tower is the keeper's house; the lone survivor of the three originally erected here in 1890. The one-and-a-half-story wooden frame dwelling has a narrow, centrally located shed-roofed porch on its three-bay front (east) elevation and a shed at the rear. Gable roofed dormers are positioned on both the front and rear facades. A pair of brick flues punctuate the roof ridge. Clapboards cover the house. Paired windows are located in both gable ends.

Built at the same time that the station was established, the square brick fog signal building stands to the south of the tower. Covered by a low hipped roof, the building has two doors and three windows on its north wall, and two openings on the south elevation. Originally, a tall chimney rose through the west plane of the roof.

Constructed in 1901, the oil house is a small stone building similar in plan to those erected at other Maine light stations. It stands to the east of the tower and features a door and ventilator in its west gable end.

Located at a point that is northeast of the keeper's house, the shed probably dates to the establishment of the station in 1890, but its original use is not known. The frame building is sheathed in clapboards and covered by a gable roof.

At the time of its establishment the light station on Great Duck Island also featured, in addition to the two dwellings, a boathouse and slip 200 feet in length, a barn, a long rain shed used to collect water for the fog signal, an engine house, coal bunkers, and a number of small outbuildings. Most of these ancillary buildings had been removed prior to the automation of the light in 1986.

Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine View from southwest (1987)
View from southwest (1987)

Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine Keeper'S House, Small Boathouse, and Light Tower West and South Sides of Keeper'S House, West Side of Boathouse and Tower (1991)
Keeper'S House, Small Boathouse, and Light Tower West and South Sides of Keeper'S House, West Side of Boathouse and Tower (1991)

Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine Oil House, Fog Signal House and Light Tower East and North Sides (1991)
Oil House, Fog Signal House and Light Tower East and North Sides (1991)

Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine Light Tower and Fog Signal House West and South Sides (1991)
Light Tower and Fog Signal House West and South Sides (1991)

Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine Light Tower North and West Sides (1991)
Light Tower North and West Sides (1991)

Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine Light Tower, Newel Post and Stairs (1991)
Light Tower, Newel Post and Stairs (1991)

Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine Keeper'S House East and North Sides (1991)
Keeper'S House East and North Sides (1991)

Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine Oil House West and South Sides (1991)
Oil House West and South Sides (1991)

Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine Small Boathouse South and East Sides (1991)
Small Boathouse South and East Sides (1991)

Great Duck Island Lighthouse, Frenchboro Maine Large Boathouse South and East Sides (1991)
Large Boathouse South and East Sides (1991)