Whitlocks Mill Light

Lighthouse in Maine, US

Lighthouse

45°9′45.370″N 67°13′38.566″W / 45.16260278°N 67.22737944°W / 45.16260278; -67.22737944TowerConstructed1892FoundationDressed stone/timberConstructionBrick, ceramic tile liningAutomated1969Height25 feet (7.6 m)ShapeCylindricalMarkingsWhite w/black lanternHeritageNational Register of Historic Places listed place

LightFirst lit1909 (current tower)Focal height32 feet (9.8 m)Lens4th order Fresnel lens (original), VLB-44 (2009)Range6 nmi (11 km; 6.9 mi)

CharacteristicIso G 6s

Whitlocks Mill Light Station

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

U.S. Historic district

Nearest cityCalais, MaineArea1 acre (0.40 ha)Built1910ArchitectUS Army Corps of EngineersMPSLight Stations of Maine MPSNRHP reference No.87002276^[1]Added to NRHPJanuary 21, 1988

The Whitlocks Mill Light is a lighthouse on the south bank of the St. Croix River in Calais, Maine. It is the northernmost lighthouse in the state of Maine,^[2] and was the last light to be built in the state.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Description

The light station includes a tower, keeper's house, equipment shed, oil house, and bell house. The keeper's house, now privately owned, is an L-shaped two-story gambrel roof oriented to face the river. The tower is a circular brick structure, topped by a lantern house surrounded by an iron railing. The bell house is distinctive as one of the few surviving period pyramidal bell houses. The oil house is a small brick gable-roofed structure, typical of oil houses at other light stations.^[7]

History

This light marks a bend in the river, and was established as a light station in 1892. The original light was a lantern hung in the tree by the local miller after whom the station was named. In 1910 the present complex was built, with a fourth-order Fresnel lens mounted in the lantern house.^[7]

In 1969 the light was automated, and the Fresnel lens was replaced with a standard 9.8 inches (250 mm) optic. The old lens was later put on display at the Shore Village Museum in Rockland (now part of the Maine Lighthouse Museum).^[8] In 2009, the 250mm optic was replaced with an LED VLB-44.^[6] In 1970, the station was leased to the Washington County Vocational Technical Institute;^[2] eventually the keeper's house and grounds passed into private hands, but the Coast Guard retained ownership of the light tower itself.

In 1999 the tower was deeded to the St. Croix Historical Society as part of the Maine Lighthouse Program, a precursor to the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act. The light was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Whitlocks Mill Light Station on January 21, 1988, reference number 87002276.

1916 postcard

References

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
^ ^a ^b "Whitlocks Mill Light". New England Lighthouses: A Virtual Guide. Retrieved February 5, 2009.
^ "Whitlock's Mill Lighthouse". St. Croix Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 7, 2008. Retrieved February 9, 2008.
^ "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Maine". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Archived from the original on May 1, 2017.
^ Light List, Volume I, Atlantic Coast, St. Croix River, Maine to Shrewsbury River, New Jersey (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2015. p. 9.
^ ^a ^b Rowlett, Russ (December 7, 2009). "Lighthouses of the United States: Eastern Maine". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
^ ^a ^b "NRHP nomination for Whitlocks Mill Light". National Park Service. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
^ "Shore Village Museum". Retrieved February 5, 2008.

Lighthouses of Maine

Main: List of lighthouses in the United States

* Disputed territory claimed by Maine but de facto controlled by Canada

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