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After years of tedious planning and fund raising, the restoration of the lighthouse keeper’s house at Maine’s Wood Island Lighthouse has been undertaken thanks to the efforts of the Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse and the American Lighthouse Foundation.
The restoration of the keeper’s house is the second step of restoration at the lighthouse station that was established in 1808 and is located on an island off the community of Biddeford Pool. Last year the tower was restored.
As part of the restoration, the contemporary porch of the keeper’s house was removed to be replaced by a replica of the 1906 porch, all while leaving intact those sections which had been previously identified as historic.
As well as replacing the porch, work crews from J.B. Leslie Company, the firm contracted to do the work, removed clapboard siding, disassembled deteriorated chimneys down to the roof line, removed old concrete footers, and re-pointed all masonry and much more.
An interesting find was made when the crew removed the contemporary porch. They discovered the concrete steps to an earlier porch and a brick landing that had been hidden below the modern porch.
The restoration was expected to be completed by the time we went to press and hopefully, we will have more photographs to share with you in the next issue of Lighthouse Digest.
The many volunteers of the Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse, a chapter of the American Lighthouse, are to be congratulated for their dedication in saving this historic light station.
Photographs by Bob Trapani, Jr., Executive Director of the American Lighthouse Foundation.
This story appeared in the
Nov/Dec 2011 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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