Great Duck Island Light

Year Built

1890

Cost

$30,000

Type

Cylindrical

Height

43 feet

Location

Great Duck Island

Automated Year

1986

First Lit

1890

Lens Type

Fifth order Fresnel Lens

Fog Signal

Horn: 1 every 15s - operates continuously

Year Deactivated

Active

Color

White with black lantern

Last Keeper - Date

Matthew Asselin ( – 1986)

Description

A cylindrical brick structure, with an attached workroom, capped by a circular iron railing, which surrounds the ten-sided lantern house. Just south of the tower is the square brick hip-roofed fog signal building. A small brick oil house stands east of the tower and near the northern end of the property is the 1890 keeper's house, one of three built and the only one to survive.

Brief History

•  When work commenced in May 1890, the first task was to build a double boat slip and boathouse at the landing.
•  The tower’s daymark was red, until May 20, 1900, when it was painted white.
•  The light was placed in operation on December 31, 1890, using a fifth-order lens that produced a red flash every ten seconds.
•  In 1984, the Maine Chapter of the Nature Conservancy purchased most of Great Duck Island
•  In 1998, the roughly twelve acres encompassing Great Duck Island Lighthouse became the property of Bar Harbor’s College of the Atlantic (COA) under the Maine Lights Program.