Perkins Island Light

Year Built

1898

Cost

$17,000

Type

Octagonal Wood Tower

Height

23 feet

Location

Kennebec River

Automated Year

1959

First Lit

1898

Lens Type

Fifth order Fresnel Lens

Fog Signal

None

Year Deactivated

Active

Color

White w/red lantern

Last Keeper - Date

Clarence Skolfield (1946-1955)

Description

The station consists of a tower, keeper's house, barn, bell house, and oil house. The tower is a tapered octagonal wood-frame structure, with its exterior clad in wooden shingles

Brief History

•  July 1897, title for Perkins Island was obtained, plans and specifications had been prepared, and a contract for constructing the station was agreed upon.
•  On January 15, 1902, a fifth-order Fresnel lens replaced the lens lantern used in the lantern room.
•  In a 1938 interview, Ethel Osgood, who had been living with her husband a declared that lighthouse keepers had a pretty comfortable life.
•  After Keeper Skolfield transferred to Squirrel Island in 1955, coastguardsmen were assigned to Perkins Island until the station as automated in 1959.
•  The American Lighthouse Foundation signed a long-term license with the Coast Guard in 2000.