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The Town of Castine, Maine has decided to continue its arrangement with the current tenant, who has been renting the former Dice Head Lighthouse keeper’s house for the past nine years.
Some local residents believed the house should have been rented out as a vacation rental that would generate more income for the town. Although our opinion doesn’t count, we would have liked to have seen at least the first floor turned into a museum about the history of the light station.
After the Dice Head Lighthouse was discontinued in 1935, the light was removed from the lantern and put on an erector-set-style skeleton pole. In 1937, ownership of the house was transferred to the town, and in 1956 the tower was also given to the community.
In April of 1999, the keeper’s house was heavily damaged by a fire and the town contemplated tearing the structure down. However, it was decided that extensive repairs could save it. In September of 2007, a windstorm toppled the skeleton pole, so the Coast Guard decided to place a light back in the tower’s lantern. After being dark for 72 years, the lantern at Dice Head Lighthouse was relit with a 300mm optic, which was later replaced with a 250mm optic.
This story appeared in the
Sep/Oct 2022 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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