|
Spring Point Ledge is a dangerous
obstruction on the west side of the main shipping channel from
the south into Portland Harbor. Many vessels ran aground on the
ledge before requests from seven steamship companies in 1891
convinced the federal government to build a lighthouse. The steamship
companies had carried more than 500,000 passengers through the
area during the previous year.
|
Spring Point Ledge Light is a fairly typical "sparkplug"
style lighthouse of the period, built on a cylindrical cast-iron
caisson. Unlike many of this type, however, the tower is built
of brick rather than cast-iron.
The contractor who built the lighthouse, Thomas Dwyer, was
also responsible for some prominent buildings in New York City,
including a wing of the Metropolitan Museum and several buildings
at City College.
It was first lighted May 24, 1897 by Keeper William A. Lane.
The 54-foot lighthouse has a storeroom and cistern in the basement,
topped by four levels including a keeper's office and two levels
of living quarters.
The lantern was fitted with a fifth-order Fresnel lens. An
oil room in the basement contained a 239-gallon tank for the
kerosene that fueled the light in its early days, until it was
electrified in 1934.
A fog bell hung on the side of the tower, which sounded a
double blow every 12 seconds by means of a striking mechanism
powered by a clockwork mechanism with 800 pounds of weights.
|
- U.S. Coast Guard
|
- Early photo of Spring Point Ledge Light. From the collection of Edward Rowe
Snow, courtesy of Dorothy Bicknell
| Spring Point Ledge Light was a "stag station," with
a male keeper and assistant keeper living inside the tower. Keepers
had to be creative in their means of exercise. Somebody figured
that it took 56 jogs around the tower's main deck to make one
mile. Once, a keeper was running laps in this fashion and forgot
to close a trap door. He slipped through the opening and only
a ladder prevented him from falling 17 feet to a rock ledge and
swirling waves.
In its early years, the lighthouse's foundation was battered
and damaged by ice. Granite blocks were piled around the foundation
to protect it, and there have been no further problems. Daniel J. Doyle was keeper from 1915 to 1918. He occupied
his spare time by playing cribbage and building ship models.
Keeper Doyle had a family living in Portland. His schedule called
for him to come ashore after two weeks at the lighthouse, but
stormy weather sometimes prevented him from leaving the station
for up to two months at a stretch.
|
Doyle's daugher, Barbara Ward,
told the Portland Press Herald, "It was a rough life.
It was confining... and you had to be really alert and pay attention
to what you were doing." Just the same, she says, "he
enjoyed every minute of it." 
Gus Wilson | One
of the light's best known keepers was Augustus Aaron "Gus" Wilson,
a native of Tremont, Maine. He earned a living as a fisherman and
boatbuilder before joining the Lighthouse Service at the age of 50. His
first light station was Great Duck Island. When he arrived there,
he found there was no Parchessi board, so he made one out of wood.
After time at Great Duck Island, Marshall Point, Goose Rocks, and Cape
Elizabeth, he came to Spring Point Ledge Light in 1917 and remained
there until 1934.
Wilson
gained wide fame as one of New England’s most accomplished carvers of
wooden bird decoys. He carved a variety of ducks, shore birds,
seagulls, and songbirds; it’s been estimated that his total production
was in excess of 5,000 carvings. “Gus whittled every spare moment,”
said Fred Anderson, a local man who spent much time with the
keeper. |
Wilson carved duck decoys by the hundreds and sold them to a store in
Portland for 75 cents each. He was renowned for his carving skill and
imagination, and his work became highly collectible. One of Wilson’s
decoys fetched $195,500 at a 2005 auction. His work has been displayed
at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and at the Shelburne Museum in
Vermont.
Spring Point Ledge Light was
electrified in 1934. For some years, the keepers at Spring Point Ledge also monitored
nearby Portland Breakwater Light.
John
Attleson, an Iowa native who served as a Coast Guard keeper for about
two years during World War II, later told stories about how he hated
rowing through the pack ice in winter to get supplies. Attleson was wed
during his stint at Spring Point.
| A display in the lighthouse tells the story of Gus Wilson and his decoys. |
- U.S. Coast Guard photo, circa 1950. Notice that
the breakwater hadn't been completed.
| In 1951, a 900-foot breakwater was constructed
with 50,000 tons of granite, joining the lighthouse to the mainland.
Under the Maine Lights Program coordinated by the Island Institute
of Rockland, Spring Point Ledge Light was expected to be transferred
from the Coast Guard to some other group.
The City of South Portland
applied to co-own the property with Southern Maine Technical
College, but in October 1997 the city council voted to withdraw
the application after 90 minutes of debate. A handicapped-rights
activist had threatened to take the city to court if the lighthouse
wasn't made handicapped-accessible, which would have cost approximately
$250,000. |
-
In March 1998, the Spring Point Museum (now the Portland
Harbor Museum) was allowed to make a late application
to the Maine Lights Selection Committee. The museum put together
the Spring Point
Ledge Light Trust, made up of local residents, business
people, museum members and city representatives. The chairman
of the museum's board of directors answered the handicapped access
issue by pointing out that the Army Corps of Engineers owns the
breakwater, so the owner of the lighthouse is not legally reponsible
for access. On April 28, 1998, the Maine Lights Selection Committee
announced the transfer of Spring Point Ledge Light to the Spring Point Ledge Light
Trust.
On Saturday, May 22, 1999, Spring Point Ledge Light was opened
to the public for the first time in its history. About 500 people
visited that day, braving a cool wind that swept the breakwater. | In 2004, a six-year effort by the Spring
Point Ledge Light Trust culminated in the replacement
of the badly deteriorated iron canopy over the structure's lower
gallery. Atlantic Mechanical Inc. of Wiscasset, Maine, completed
the overhaul in July 2004. During the first stage of the $52,000
job, Atlantic Mechanical workers removed all 32 plates of the
canopy, then cleaned and painted all the supporting rafters and
fittings.
New panels made of steel were fabricated using the originals
as templates, and the panels were powder coated using a high
heat process prior to installation. When the lighthouse was built
in 1897, the canopy plates were installed using rivets. Since
that type of construction isn't done anymore, the new panels
were installed with stainless steel bolts that look much like
the earlier rivets (see picture below). |  |
 | The canopy plates were refurbished and the lighthouse was painted in 2011. There are plans in the works to restore the caisson. Spring Point Ledge Light is easily reached by land, and tour
boats and ferries leaving Portland pass the lighthouse. The campus of Southern
Maine Community College adjoins the property. The old fifth-order Fresnel lens from this lighthouse is now in the collection of the Maritime Exchange Museum in Howell, Michigan. |
-
- A view of the breakwater from the
top of the tower.
| 
- The lighthouse displays a flashing
white light,
- with two red sectors produced by the red glass in
the lantern.
|
- Leslie Barteaux, a trustee of the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse Trust, speaks to visitors in the galley.
| 
| 
- The old fog bell is on display on
the gallery outside the lighthouse, next to the modern electronic
foghorn.
| 
A door on the upper part of the lighthouse was paid for by a grant from the New England Lighthouse Lovers. |
PLEASE NOTE: The
following list of keepers is not complete. It is a work in progress,
and any additional information is welcomed and appreciated; you can
email me at nelights@gmail.com. If you copy this list to another site,
you do so at your own risk. I can't guarantee its accuracy.
Keepers:
William A. Lane (1897-1901); William Harry Phillips (assistant,
1897-1898); Harris S. Grant (first assistant 1898-1901, head keeper
1901-1902); Frank Cotton (Cullen?) (1902); Charles E. B. Stanley (first
assistant 1902, head keeper 1902-1908?); Charles A. Burke (first
assistant, 1901-1902); Joseph W. Cameron (first assistant 1902-1904);
Jerome C. Brawn (first assistant 1904); Otto A. Wilson (1908-1931);
Leroy Elwell (first assistant, 1908-1909; principal keeper c. 1935-36);
Edward Merritt (first assistant, 1909-? ); Daniel J. Doyle (1915-1918);
John W. Cameron (assistant. c. 1920s); Augustus A. Wilson (assistant
1918-1931, principal keeper 1931-1934); Douglas Larrabee (c. 1936-?);
John Attleson (Coast Guard, c. 1943-1945); Ralph Norwood (Coast Guard, 1951-1954); Joseph Bakken (Coast Guard,
1954-?) | 
|
