Port Clyde, one of the villages that comprise the town of St. George in Midcoast Maine, became a busy port in the 1800s with granite quarries, tide mills for sawing timber, shipbuilding facilities, and fish canning businesses. To help mariners entering the harbor or passing to the west into Muscongus Bay, Congress appropriated funds for a light station at Marshall Point in 1831 and a rubblestone lighthouse tower was completed in the following year.
The 31-foot brick and granite lighthouse that stands today was built in 1857. The original 1832 keeper’s house stood until 1895, when it was destroyed by a fire caused by lightning. The Colonial Revival keeper’s house built after the fire still stands. The light was automated in 1971, and the house was boarded up in 1980.
Several years later, the St. George Historical Society undertook the restoration of the house. A committee raised money and the restoration was completed in 1990. The first floor now houses the Marshall Point Lighthouse Museum, with exhibits on local history as well as life at the light station. Nat Lyon is the director and curator of the Marshall Point Lighthouse and Museum.
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Jeremy D’Entremont is the author of more than 20 books and hundreds of articles on lighthouses and maritime history. He is the president and historian for the American Lighthouse Foundation and founder of Friends of Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouses, and he has lectured and narrated cruises throughout the Northeast and in other regions. He is also the producer and host of the U.S. Lighthouse Society podcast, “Light Hearted.” He can be emailed at Jeremy@uslhs.org