Bass Harbor Head Light Station: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Acadia National Park
Killion JT and Berriault E. 2022. Bass Harbor Head Light Station: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Acadia National Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 976232. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
The Bass Harbor Head Light Station is a historic property in Acadia National Park, located in Hancock County, Maine. Acadia was the first national park established east of the Mississippi River and today encompasses over 50,000 acres across Mount Desert Island, the Schoodic Peninsula, and other smaller islands. The light station is located at the southernmost tip of Mount Desert Island, southeast of the village of Bass Harbor in the town of Tremont. Designed to aid vessels coming into Bass Harbor, the light station was established in 1858 during a period of increased effort by the Federal government to provide aids to navigation along the coast. The light station retains its original one-and-a-half-story frame Keeper’s Dwelling and circular brick Lighthouse (attached via an altered covered way) along the rocky coast. Other historic buildings at the site are an 1897 Bell House to the southeast, a 1902 Oil House to the northwest, and a 1905 Garage to the northwest. A public parking lot and a restroom building are located just north of the Light Station, while a historic paved driveway runs from the parking lot down to the light station. A Generator Building (originally a Navy Radio Transmitting station) and antenna are located at the southeast corner of the parking lot. Spruce and fir woodlands and granite ledges characterize the landscape, interlaced with stone retaining walls and patches of lawn. A maintained historic hiking trail leads through the trees lot down to the shoreline and an iconic view of the Lighthouse. Since automation of the lighthouse in 1974 through about 2012, the surviving structures were used by the United States Coast Guard as family housing. Since 2012, the complex has been vacant, but the light is maintained through an easement retained by the Coast Guard. In 2020 the light station was transferred from the Coast Guard to the National Park Service. Although there is no public access into the buildings, the grounds are the fifth busiest destination in Acadia National Park.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Killion, Jeffrey; Berriault, Ethan
- Date of Issue
- 2022-09-01
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- ACAD , NER
- Keywords
- and Other Structures, Architecture, Architecture Vernacular, Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, Boats, Creating Social Institutions and Movements, Developing the American Economy, Engineering, Expanding Science and Technology, Expressing Cultural Values, Historic Designed Landscape, Lighthouses, Recreation Tourism, Shipping and Transportation by Water, Ships, Technology (Engineering and Invention), Transportation