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In the early morning hours of June 27th, a fire heavily damaged the former keeper’s house at Maine’s 1891 Prospect Harbor Point Lighthouse.
The former light keeper’s house, now owned by the U.S. Navy, is within the boundaries of a secretive Navy satellite communications center and is generally off-limits to the public. After the Navy obtained ownership, they named the former keeper’s house “Gull Cottage” and rented it out to vacationing retired or active military personnel.
At the time of the fire, a family of four, who was renting the house, was awakened by the smoke alarms. Fire departments from a number of area fire departments responded; however, by the time they arrived, the upper floor and roof were heavily engulfed in flames.
Although they were able to extinguish the fire, the damage was done. Most of the upper section of the house was destroyed and the rest of the structure suffered severe water damage. Most responders agreed that the house was a total loss, although one fire chief thought that it might be able to be restored. The wooden lighthouse tower that was saved from collapse in 2004 by the American Lighthouse Foundation, at that time under the leadership of Timothy Harrison, was not damaged by the fire.
It was later determined that the fire was accidental, having been started by a bathroom exhaust fan.
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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