June 24, 1850
A major milestone for a lighthouse in Maine took place when a contract was officially entered into for rebuilding that navigational aid’s tower. This lighthouse is on Monhegan Island, which is located about 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) off the state’s mainland coast.
The call for proposals to replace Monhegan Island Light’s tower had been issued by Luther Jewett (1793-1856), who worked in Maine for the U.S Customs Service and also served as the superintendent of the state’s lighthouses. His announcement concerning Monhegan Island Light was published in the Portland Press Herald on April 25, 1850, and it gave potential contractors up until noontime on May 20 to submit their proposals for the construction project.
Monhegan Island Light was authorized by Congress in 1822. It first went into service a couple of years later. By the early 1840s, there were major concerns about the overall sturdiness of the 38-foot (11.6-meter) tower and also its ability to support the light installed there to guide vessels in that region of the Gulf of Maine. After the tower had been significantly battered in a storm, the decision was made once and for all to build a similar but stronger – and taller — granite structure.
In his call for proposals in this regard, Jewett made clear that the construction on the replacement tower needed “to be done with the best of materials and in the best workmanship manner, under the direction of an Engineer appointed by government to superintend the work, or under the direction of the superintendent of Light Houses for the State of Maine, or any person he may appoint for that purpose — so as to be lighted up on or before the first day of October next.” Jewett further noted, “The drawings can be examined at the Customs-house in Portland.”
The replacement tower for Monhegan Island Light was designed by Massachusetts-born architect and engineer Alexander Parris (1780-1852). During his prolific career, Parris designed several other lighthouses in the northeastern United States. His design for the second and still-intact 47-foot (14-meter) tower on Monhegan Island turned out to be his last major work.
Monhegan Island Light, which has been automated since 1959, remains in operation today. In 1980, the entire complex for this navigational aid was added to the National Register of Historic Places as “Monhegan Island Lighthouse and Quarters.”
Photo Credit: Mainiac (licensed under the Creative Commons 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en)
For more information on Monhegan Island Light, please check out https://www.mainelightstoday.com/light/monhegan-island-lighthouse/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monhegan_Island_Light
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