Browns Head Light Station, Vinalhaven Maine
The light tower at Browns Head is one of the earliest designs, having been built during the year 1832 on order from President Andrew Jackson. It is the type of station in common use in the days before the Civil War. There was much shipping on Penobscot Bay when the light was erected and it became a key navigational aid, particularly as a guide to the entrance of the much-used Fox Islands Thoroughfare.
The keeper's house dates from 1857 when the station was rehabilitated but the tower is original.
This lighthouse has long been a mecca for summer visitors sailing their small boats on the Bay and Thoroughfare.
Site Description
Browns Head Light Station, dating from 1832, is a well-preserved lighthouse with attached keeper's quarters located in a spectacular setting.
The lighthouse proper is a cylindrical granite tower, approximately 18 feet in height, with a hexagonal light casing above topped by a hexagonal flat-hipped cap. The light is 37 feet above the water and has a range of 15 miles.
The tower is connected to the keeper's house on the northeast side by a short covered passageway that enters the gable end of this Cape Cod structure.
The house is a story-and-a-half frame building, three bays wide on the long sides and two on the ends. The entrance is on the southeast side in the center bay. A one-and-a-half-story addition was added to the northeast end of the structure in 1927. Fenestration is 6/6 throughout.
View from West (1982)
