Located in Calais, ME
The original painting is available. Please email me for purchasing information.
Whitlocks Mill Lighthouse is located on a bend in the St. Corix river between Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada. It looks like your typical Maine lighthouse with its white tower and black beacon. However, this lighthouse has two distinctions that set it apart: It is both the last lighthouse built in Maine, and the state’s northernmost lighthouse.
During the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century, England couldn’t source wood for thier ships in Europe, so they looked to America. The abundant pine forests around Calais at the time provided the perfect wood for masts and soon Calais was a major lumber port. Its sawmills were processing over tens of millions of feet of timber every year by the 1850’s.
The flow of timber out of, and goods into Calais made the St. Croix river a busy shipping lane and it was clear navigational aids were required. A lighthouse had already been built on St. Croix Island further to the east, but there was a treacherous “dogleg” bend right before Calais that also happened to be in a spot where the river became dangerously narrow. To warn pilots of the danger a lantern was hung in a tree, then moved to a pole. Eventually, a lighthouse was built in 1909.
The tenders of the original lantern were Mr. and Mrs. Colin Whitlock. Whitlock owned a mill nearby, which gave the eventual lighthouse its name.
The lighthouse was originally painted red. It was repainted to its current white color in 1914. It was automated in 1969. The St. Croix Historical Society became the owner of the lighthouse in 1997, though the beacon’s green blinking light is still maintained by the US Coast Guard. The keeper’s house and associated outbuildings are all privately owned.
Most of the information above comes from the amazing site, https://www.lighthousefriends.com.
About the Whitlocks Mill Lighthouse Painting
I couldn’t get up close and personal to Whitlocks Mill Lighthouse because it’s on private property. Luckily, there is a rest stop with a picnic area and meadow just to the east of it on Route 1. I walked to the far western corner of the meadow, as close to the river as I could, stood on top of the fence, and was able to get a usable reference photo through the trees with my zoom lens.
Even though I was further away from the lighthouse than I wanted to be, I was happy with the unique perspective the vantage point gave me. I’ve never painted a lighthouse from above before. This view of looking down onto the lighthouse and river is one of my favorite things about the painting.
The painting itself is 12 x 16 inches. It’s painted with gouache on panel.
The original painting is available. Please email me for purchasing information.