Pumpkin I. Light

Pumpkin I. Light

A postcard photo: "Pumpkin I. Light". A small lighthouse with a small residence attached, and two out-buildings. Pumpkin Island is a very small island off the coast of Little Deer Island, Maine. (This lighthouse is in LB2012.28.127, 165, 220 and 232.) Lighthouses--Maine Islands Pumpkin Island is roughly 3 acres in size, and is located off the northern tip of Little Deer Island on the east side of Penobscot Bay. The channel to the east of the island, Eggemoggin Reach, connects Penobscot Bay to Blue Hill Bay further east. The island was chosen (in preference to a site on the mainland to the north) in 1852 to be the site of the station marking the northwestern end of the channel. Construction began in 1854, and the station entered service the following year. The tower is a round brick structure, measuring 22 feet (6.7 m) from its base to the light. It is capped by an octagonal lantern house that was installed in about 1890, replacing an original larger unit. An iron walkway with railing surrounds the lantern house. There are two windows in the tower, and a frame workroom to the south connects it to the keeper's house. The house is a small three-bay single-story wood frame clapboarded structure, with a single gabled dormer on the east side, and a wing (added in 1887) extending to the south. A small brick oil house stands a short way off, and there is a wood-frame boathouse, built in 1885 and enlarged in 1906, at the boat slip on the north end of the island. The light station was built as part of a comprehensive plan for providing aids to navigation on the east side of Penobscot Bay that was developed in the early 1850s. The light was operated until 1933, when it was discontinued and sold. The island and buildings have remained in private hands since that time.