Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine

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Date added: January 14, 2025
Light Tower Southeast and Northeast Sides (1990)

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Marshall Point Light Station, which stands at the eastern entrance to Port Clyde Harbor, was established in 1832 and partially rebuilt in 1857 and 1896.

Port Clyde is one of a number of small coastal communities along the Saint George peninsula whose nineteenth-century economy was heavily dependent upon maritime pursuits. Its long-established fishing industry was supplemented beginning in the 1830s by local ship-building enterprises that survived to the turn of the century. In addition, Port Clyde was the site of a commercial ice industry and the home of the South Saint George Guano and Oil Corporation, both of which had their beginnings in the mid-1870s. Building on its fisheries a canned lobster plant was founded in the 1880s. All of these industries relied upon water-borne transportation whose successful transit of the area was closely tied to the operation of the Marshall Point Light Station.

Site Description

The Marshall Point Light Station consists of a one-and-a-half-story gambrel roofed keeper's house, a granite oil house, and a detached round granite light tower. Standing on a rock outcropping which is located below and away from the mainland, the tower is connected to the shore through a four-span wooden walkway that is supported by three granite piers.

The light tower, built in 1857, is a slender structure that is twenty-four feet in height from its base to the focal plane of the original lens. Its landward face has a narrow attached entrance vestibule that is surmounted by the circular iron parapet. The polygonal lantern, which now shelters a modern beacon, features a base whose separate units contain coupled round-arched panels. Extending from the tower to the shore is the four-span wooden walkway, an as yet undated replacement of the original covered way. This remarkably well-preserved structure is comprised of simple king-post trusses supported by tapered granite piers.

The walkway leads to the 1896 keeper's house. Facing south, the shingled dwelling has a deep porch and a shallow bay window on the first story. A trio of windows, one of which is located in the attic, are symmetrically placed in the gambrel end. These windows, and those elsewhere on the house, have been boarded shut. Coupled square posts support the porch's low hip roof which shelters the door. The west side elevation has three asymmetrically placed windows on the first story and a pair of dormers above. On the east elevation, a large two-story five-sided tower dominates. It adjoins a window opening on the first story and a dormer. Behind the tower, a brick flue punctuates the roof. The rear elevation has a pair of shed additions and a second-story fenestration pattern which resembles the one on the front. A granite foundation supports the house.

Some distance to the east of the dwelling is the granite oil house. Like many similar structures, the building has a single door on one gable end. A small rectangular vent surmounts the door. It was added to the complex in 1905.

The exact configuration of the Marshall Point Light at the time it was established is not as yet positively known. Subsequent descriptions in the Annual Reports of the Light-House Board indicate that the original dwelling was constructed of stone. The shape and location of the tower is unknown. In 1857 this tower was replaced by the existing structure. Nearly four decades later the keeper's house was rebuilt; a remarkably late survivor among the numerous Maine stations that originally featured stone dwellings.

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine View from east (1987)
View from east (1987)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine View from northeast (1987)
View from northeast (1987)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine Oil House (1987)
Oil House (1987)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine Light Tower and Keeper'S House Southeast Sides (1990)
Light Tower and Keeper'S House Southeast Sides (1990)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine Keeper'S House and Light Tower Northeast and Northwest Sides (1990)
Keeper'S House and Light Tower Northeast and Northwest Sides (1990)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine Keeper'S House Southwest and Southeast Sides (1990)
Keeper'S House Southwest and Southeast Sides (1990)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine Keeper'S House, First Floor, Northeast Room, Looking Southeast (1990)
Keeper'S House, First Floor, Northeast Room, Looking Southeast (1990)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine Keeper'S House, Looking Southwest from Porch towards Northeast Front of Light Tower (1990)
Keeper'S House, Looking Southwest from Porch towards Northeast Front of Light Tower (1990)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine Light Tower and Walkway Northeast Sides (1990)
Light Tower and Walkway Northeast Sides (1990)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine Light Tower Southeast and Northeast Sides (1990)
Light Tower Southeast and Northeast Sides (1990)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine Light Tower Interior from Entrance (1990)
Light Tower Interior from Entrance (1990)

Marshall Point Lighthouse, Port Clyde Maine Oil House West and South Sides (1990)
Oil House West and South Sides (1990)