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Winter Harbor Light Print E-mail
Written by Jeremy D'Entremont   

Winter Harbor Light / Jeremy D'Entremont
Winter Harbor, Maine

Est 1856. Discontinued 1933

Once a favorite guide to this safe harbor in Maine, Winter Harbor Light is now privately owned. Visitors can see it from shore or from passing tour boats. A former lighthouse keeper spoke of "unreal callers" who would knock on the door, but where not visible to the eye.

Jeremy’s Lighthouse Guide #50

 

 

 

Winter Harbor, off the east side of Frenchman’s Bay, was long a favorite safe harbor for mariners seeking shelter from storms. In 1856 a lighthouse was built for $4,000 on little (about four acres) Mark Island to guide vessels to the harbor and to warn of dangerous ledges nearby. The first keeper was Frederick Gerrish.

In its 78 years of active service nine keepers and their families lived at Winter Harbor Light. In 1934 the light was discontinued and replaced by a lighted buoy to the southeast. George Harmon of Bar Harbor bought the property along with Pumpkin Island Light further south.

Three years later, the lighthouse station was bought by writer Bernice Richmond and her husband, sociologist Reginald Robinson. Richmond wrote two books about the years she and her husband spent on Mark Island: Winter Harbor and Our Island Lighthouse. In Our Island Lighthouse she wrote:

Winter Harbor, Maine

"It is hard for people living on the mainland to understand the contentment found on an island. . . I couldn't put into words . . . how terribly important it was to sleep on the island with sea sounds encircling me. I couldn't explain how I looked forward each morning to that first rush of salty air through my kitchen door, to the early tour I take over the vein-like paths to the gardens. . ."

She also wrote matter-of-factly about "unreal callers" at the lighthouse. She would hear what sounded like a group of people in conversation outside, followed by knocks at the door. When she answered the door, there was invariably nobody in sight. Richmond’s brother reported hearing disembodied voices in the lighthouse and wondered how his sister could spend so much time alone there.

 

In the 1950s, the island was bought by Rene Prud-Hommeaux, an author of children's books. It was later owned for a time by playwright Gerald Kean. A recent owner was writer and retired banker William C. Holden III, who wrote several novels during his time on the island. He renovated the property so that the lighthouse is in its best shape in years. "I don't feel like I own it. I feel like a caretaker, like I am entrusted with it. It's a very special place," he once told Lighthouse Digest.

The property has recently been sold again. Winter Harbor Light can be seen offshore from the loop road on Acadia National Park's Schoodic Penninsula. It can also be seen from some of the tour boats leaving Bar Harbor. 

For more HISTORY on this lighthouse visit Lighthouse.cc

Winter Harbor Lighthouse Postcard

Postcard of Winter Harbor

 Copyright 2005 by Jeremy D'Entremont,New England Lighthouses
Photos are the property of the author and may not be used without permission.
Photos above from Jeremy D'Entremont. 

 

 

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