Isle Au Haut Light Station, Isle Au Haut Maine

Date added: September 02, 2024

Categories:
Maine
Lighthouse

Light tower northeast and northwest sides (1991)

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The Isle Au Haut Light Station is the next to last complex of its type established in Maine. Built in 1907 on Robinson Point at the southern end of Isle Au Haut Thorofare, the light was established here as a guide to the adjacent sheltered harbor.

The 1902 edition of the Annual Report of the Light House Board carries a lengthy discussion about the need for a light at this site. Because of the rich fishing grounds along the lower East Penobscot Bay, the harbor at Isle Au Haut was found to be the most convenient harbor of refuge for fishing trawlers. Despite this clear statement of need, however, Congress did not authorize construction until June 23^rd, 1906, when it appropriated $14,000 for the station. It was activated on December 30^th, 1907. In 1934 the light was automated and the buildings, with the exception of the tower, were sold. At present the dwelling houses are a bed and breakfast inn.

Site Description

The Isle Au Haut Light Station consists of a detached granite and brick light tower reached by way of an elevated wooden walkway and a two-story gambrel-roofed, stuccoed keeper's dwelling, a stuccoed oil house, a frame boathouse, a fuel house, and a privy. The tower rises above a wide rock ledge whereas the house and ancillary buildings stand on the shore framed by evergreens.

Isle Au Haut's tower, built in 1907, is composed of a conical granite base, twenty-four feet in height, that supports a cylindrical brick shaft which is sixteen feet tall. The brick shaft is punctuated by a door on the southeast face and two fifteen-pane windows on the northeast and southwest sides. A wide overhanging parapet with a railing caps the tower. Behind it is an octagonal lantern with a polygonal roof and spherical ventilator. A long elevated walkway links the base of the brick shaft to the shore.

The L-shaped keeper's house has a gambrel-roofed main block and a gambrel-roofed ell. It is the original 1907 dwelling. Facing northeast and the tower, the ell contains a pair of six-over-six double-hung sash windows and a small attic window. A narrow hip-roofed porch shelters a door on the recessed wall behind the ell and a pedimented dormer punctuates the roof of the main block. There are four symmetrically placed windows in each gambrel end, and a smaller pair in the attic. The landward facade contains a hip roofed porch/vestibule at the southeast corner that shields a six-over-six window. A second window is located to the north of the porch and a pair of pedimented dormers are located above the windows.

Some distance to the northeast of the dwelling is the diminutive gable roofed oil house. Built in 1907, it is covered by a slate roof and its brick walls are stuccoed. Alterations include the addition of windows in two walls.

In close proximity to the oil house is the frame gable roofed boathouse. It was constructed in 1907. The building is covered in board-and-batten siding and has a large door on its gable end, a pair of six-over-six windows on both side elevations, a door and window at the rear, and a modern shed addition to the east side. Inside, the building retains the boat winch.

Immediately to the rear of the dwelling is the gable roofed frame fuel house. It features windows on both ends and a door in the front. The fuel house adjoins the diminutive privy.