Apparently bowing under public pressure, a Maine real estate developer has dropped his plans to sell Squirrel Point Lighthouse.

Michael Trenholm, whose non profit trust wanted to sell the lighthouse for $500,000, now says he wants to continue to restore the property. Trenholm, who had received the lighthouse for free from the federal government, said he wants to eventually open the lighthouse to the public, especially the Handicapped.

Questions about the legality of the proposed sale arose in the last couple of months, when Trenholm tried to put the property up for sale. Squirrel Point Lighthouse was mysteriously left out of the Maine Lights Program which transferred a number of lighthouses from the U.S. Coast Guard to non profits and local communities.

Lighthouse Digest will continue to monitor this lighthouse closely.