Located in Bristol, Maine
Pemaquid Point Light is the quintessential Maine lighthouse. Its white tower, adjacent keeper’s house, out buildings, and loacation atop a 40′ cliff of exposed bedrock make it so iconic it was chosen to represent Maine on its State Quarter.
Visiting Pemaquid Point feels more like a day at the park than visiting some of the more remote, hard to get to lighthouses in the Boothbay region. It’s only 50 minutes from downtown Bath. It is open to the public, has ample parking, and is on the mainland rather than an island. It’s an easy side trip for tourists on thier way up Route 1 to Acadia National Park as well. All of these factors make it a very popular and well-visited lighthouse. Even on an early Spring, overcast day when we visited, the parking lot and grounds were active with sightseers. Every other lighthouse we visited in the region during that time was a solitary experience.
Our visit was still a plesant one despite the unexpected crowds. While the park doesn’t let you get the same dramatic views up the cliff that nearby Bass Harbor Head Light Station does, it still offers a chance to see the lightouse and its companion buildings from many different, picturesque views. While we were there we were also treated to quite a few robins that were unafraid to walk around the park along with us humans and the seagulls.
On our way back up the Pemaquid Peninsula, we took a detour to Bremen, Maine to check out the National Audobon Society’s Todd Wildlife Sanctuary. It’s home to the Hog Island Audobon Camp and Audobon Seabird Institute. There is no public access to the wildlife sanctuary’s trails on the island. The mainland does offer access to a native plant garden, a quarter mile meadow trail, and an easy 1 mile loop trail that goes through the woods and along the water offering beutiful views of the narrows and Hog Island. If you are visiting by car and using GPS, make sure to enter the address “12 Audubon Rd, Bremen, ME” as your destination and not “Todd Wildlife Sanctuary.”
About the Lighthouse
Pemaquid Point Light and its keeper’s cottage were originally built in 1827. The lighthouse itself had to be rebuilt in 1835 because they used seawater in the original tower’s mortar mix. The rebuilt tower, complete with fresh-water mortar, is the one that still stands today.1
My painting also depicts a small red brick building with a white wooden tower attatched to it. The brick building is an engine house that was built in 1897 to house twin, oil-burning steam engines that powered a fog bell. Unfortunately the engines were unreliable. They reverted back to a weight-powered striking system in 1899. The white tower was built to hold the weight mechanism.1
The lighthouse has been home to at least two heroic light keepers that we know of. In 1927, 68 year old keeper, Herbert Robinson rescued two people who had been swept off the rocks below the lighthouse. Unfortunately he could not save their 18 year old nephew. In 1930, lightkeeper Leroy S. Elwell saved three people from a capsized sailboat in “extremely hazardous conditions.”1
In 1934, Pemaquid Point Light was one of the first Maine lighthouess to become automated. Since 2000, the lighthouse has been managed by the American Lighthouse Foundation of Rockland, Maine.1
The lighthouse is open to the public for tours from Memorial Day to Indigenous People’s Day.2
About the Artwork
I am a frequent visitor to the Portland Museum of Art and have seen Edward Hopper’s beautiful watercolor of Pemaquid Point several times.3 His work was in the back of my mind when I prepared to start this painting. This particular lighthouse is a very popular, very photographed landmark featured on numerous postcards. My very first Maine lighthouse paintings were inspired by hand-colored, black and white photographs that were featured in vintage photographs. My interpretation was to create detailed pencil drawings, then go over them with layers of watercolor washes. I decided I would revisit that technique with this painting.
The finished artwork is 14″x11″ graphite and watercolor on panel-mounted paper.
The original art and prints are available at my online gallery, FineArtNewEngland.com.
References
1: https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=504
2: https://www.pemaquidpointlight.org/visit/
3: https://www.portlandmuseum.org/magazine/pemaquid