Winter Harbor Light Station, Winter Harbor Maine
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- Maine
- Lighthouse
Winter Harbor Light Station was established in 1856 on Mark Island as a guide to nearby Winter and Mosquito harbors.
The light station on Mark Island served in an important capacity as a primary navigational aid to the local fishing fleet as well as nearby maritime transportation routes. This latter point became increasingly significant in the late nineteenth century as the development of the summer tourist industry on Mount Desert Island increased the number of pleasure craft that plied the waterways in the area. This light was decommissioned in 1934 and sold to a private citizen.
Site Description
The Winter Harbor Light Station consists of a cylindrical brick tower connected to the one-story ell of the frame keeper's house through a narrow brick workroom. A small frame wood shingled shed stands to the northeast of the dwelling, and an oil house and boathouse are located to the north.
Typical of mid-nineteenth-century light towers, the brick structure rests on a short granite foundation and is capped by an iron walkway with an attached railing. It was erected in 1856. There is a single six-over-six double-hung sash window on the east face of the tower. The original octagonal lantern with its domed polygonal roof and spherical ventilator survives. The connecting workroom has a door on its east elevation and a window on the west side. Doors flanked by a pair of windows form the original fenestration pattern on both sides of the ell. A shed-roofed asymmetrical three-bay addition has since been added to the east elevation. The two-story house, which is sheathed in clapboards, features four six-over-six double-hung sash windows on both gable ends and two windows on the north facade. This dwelling and its long connecting ell were built in 1876 to replace the original house.
Standing to the northeast of the dwelling is a small rectangular gable-roofed frame shed. It is sheathed in wood shingles and each of its four walls is punctuated by one opening. Its date of construction is not positively known.
The stone oil house at this light station was built in 1905 and is typical of others erected during the period. It has a gable roof and a door and ventilator on one end.
The boathouse is a rectangular wooden frame building sheathed in wood shingles, it was erected in 1878.
View from northwest (1987)
