![]() Richard Lee earned $350 annually when he started in April 1840. Freeman was also renowned for his hospitality and supplemented his income by keeping liquor to sell for three cents a glass to visitors and fishermen. Portland Head Lighthouse before duplex was built in 1891ĭirectly after Barzillai Delano came Captain Joshua Freeman, who would sit watching the sea with a length of rope by his side, ready in case of sudden shipwreck. The petition described Delano as “a careful keeper” who had “discharged his trust faithfully,” while noting that even $300 a year “would be but a bare subsistence for a small family.” Barzillai Delano died in 1820, but his son, James, would later follow in his father’s footsteps, serving as keeper at Portland Head from 1854 to 1861. Lewis carried this out in 1813, at which time he also installed a new lamp and reflector lighting system of his own design for $2,100.įollowing the submission in 1812 of a petition carrying twenty-two signatures, Delano’s annual salary was increased from $225 to $300. Lewis suggested removing the poorly built upper section, which would provide a deck for a lantern ten feet in diameter. ![]() ![]() In November 1812, contractor Winslow Lewis wrote that the lower fifty feet of the tower “was built of the best materials, done in a workmanlike manner.” But when the original masons had parted ways, quality declined. The kitchen of the new, one-story stone cottage was attached to outbuildings, which were joined to the tower. However, this would not happen until 1816, when Henry Dyer was contracted to erect a new, two-room keeper’s house for $1,175. In 1809, Delano bemoaned, “the difficulty in getting from the dwelling House to light House is very great, by reason of the passage being very steep & rocky & in addition to this is often frozen over in the Winter season, by reason of the sea washing over it.” He asked the government to build a passageway connecting the tower and dwelling. From 1793 until his death in 1795, Greenleaf was paid $160 per annum.ĭavid Duncan briefly assumed Greenleaf’s duties until Barzillai Delano took over in 1796. In June 1792, he wrote that during the previous winter, ice on the lantern glass would freeze so thick he had to melt it off. By November though, Greenleaf was ready to quit, because he couldn’t afford to stay. Greenleaf received the right to live in the keeper’s house and fish and farm in the vicinity in lieu of a salary. The light, powered by sixteen whale-oil lamps, first shone on January 10, 1791, following its dedication by Marquis de Lafayette. President Washington appointed Captain Joseph Greenleaf-a veteran of the Revolutionary War-as the first keeper. Nichols finished the lighthouse and a small dwelling in late 1790. ![]() Portland Head Lighthouse was the first lighthouse completed under the act, after Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton allocated a sum not exceeding $1,500 in August 1790 to finish the lighthouse on Portland Head.Ī fiscally minded President George Washington asked that the tower be built from local rubblestone, which could be “handled nicely when hauled by oxen on a drag.” Masons Jonathan Bryant and John Nichols set to work on the envisioned fifty-eight-foot tower, but when they were ordered to increase the height to seventy-two feet for visibility reasons, Bryant quit. The Massachusetts colonial government set aside $750 for a lighthouse at Portland Head in 1787, but the project would not be completed until after the First Congress passed the Lighthouses Act in 1789, which placed lighthouses under control of the federal government. In July 1786, “the most populous and merchantile” town of Falmouth, was incorporated into the town of Portland, and by the end of the century, Portland would be described as “one of the most thriving commercial towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.” (Maine would become a separate state in 1820.) Trade was burgeoning, but reluctance to fund the government remained. And some believe at least one former resident has never left.Įarly view showing fog bell, shorter tower, and stone dwelling ![]() One keeper took financial advantage of the area’s draw, another enjoyed visits with a famous poet, while yet another thought it the most desirable place he could serve. It was the first lighthouse completed by the United States government, and is the most visited, painted, and photographed lighthouse in New England. Portland Head Lighthouse, situated on a rocky point on the west side of the channel leading to Portland Harbor in Maine, has a history that reads like a Who’s Who from the early years of the nation. ![]()
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