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Shown here in this recently acquired original photograph, taken August 3, 1988 by New York Times photographer Gary Guisinger, are assistant light keeper Nathan Wasserstrom, (standing), and head light keeper Davis Simpson (center), with their families at Maine’s famous Portland Head Lighthouse in the community of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. They were the last Coast Guard keeper families to serve at the famous lighthouse.
When it was announced that Portland Head Lighthouse was to be automated and its keepers would be removed, tourists flocked to the lighthouse to see the families before they would be no longer there.
In recalling their life at the lighthouse, Nathan Wasserstrom’s wife, Tina, said, “People see lighthouses and think how romantic it looks and they’ll walk right in the front door while we’re eating breakfast. They don’t seem to realize this is our home.” But she also said that it was a better place to live than where they were living previously.
Tina recalled that they were living in an “itty-bitty” apartment near Portland when, one day in 1986, her husband called and said, “How’d you like to live in a lighthouse?” “I really didn’t know what to think,” she said. “But when I came out here and saw how beautiful it was, I thought to myself that we’d never have another chance to live in a wonderful place like this.”
However, a year later automation brought their wonderful life at the lighthouse to an end. On August 7, 1989, exactly 200 years to the day of the creation of the United States Lighthouse Service, Officer-in- Charge Davis Simpson lowered the Coast Guard colors at Portland Head Lighthouse for the last time, and the keepers’ house stood empty, void of human life.
Today, Portland Head Lighthouse is owned by the town of Cape Elizabeth and they operate a first-class museum in the former keepers’ house and a gift shop in the former garage.
This story appeared in the
Jul/Aug 2023 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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