Name/Title
Little River Light Station | Cutler, MaineDescription
From Sunrise County Architecture (2nd revised and enlarged edition) 1996, p. 111:
LITTLE RIVER LIGHT
The sixth oldest lighthouse in Washington County, and 38th in the State, Little River Light was opened in 1847. It is situated on Little River Island, at the mouth of Cutler harbor. Reconstructed in 1878, this white tower had keepers in it, and in a house built adjoining it, until 1975. For 128 years Little River Light's beacon guided coastal shipping between West Quoddy Head (northeast in Lubec) and Libby Island Light (southwest in Machias Bay), as well as scallop draggers and fishing boats which sometimes sailed as far as Grand Manan Island, N.B., Canada. Now the automatic beacon lights the skies, and can be seen by boats at sea, through the fog. The towers of theUnited States Navy Base at Cutler, are the only lights visible from the highway. The century-old bell from Little River Light has a place of honor at the triangle in the Town of Cutler. After 1975 civilian house-hunters were reluctant to buy Little River because of the continuous foghorn. KFM, JCB
From Little River Light Station National Register Nomination Form:
The Little River Light Station is composed of a tapered cylindrical iron light tower, a detached two-story frame keeper's house, a boathouse, and an oil house, A skeleton tower at the rock ledge now carries the beacon placed here when the station was automated.
1. LIGHTTOWER-CONTRIBUTING STRUCTURE
One of only a handful of iron light towers in Maine, this handsome example, which was erected in 1876, is constructed of four distinct sections supported by a steel and brick frame. The tower reaches a height of thirty-five feet from its base to the center of the octagonal lantern. A door is located in the tower’s north face and a segmentally arched two-over-two double hung sash window is framed by a bracketed, gabled hood. A small bullseye window is positioned below the wide overhang of the parapet. This deck is supported by handsome brackets with pendants and is framed by a railing with ornamental iron posts. The lantern has a typical late nineteenth century configuration with a paneled iron base and a polygonal roof surmounted by a spherical ventilator. A small addition has been made to the tower’s southeast face.
2. KEEPER’SHOUSE-CONTRIBUTING BUILDING
The keeper’s house at Little River is an L-shaped wooden frame building that rests on a stone foundation. It was built in 1888 to replace the original 1847 stone dwelling. Its front (north) elevation contains a shed roofed porch that shelters a door and flanking window openings (all window openings have been boarded shut at this station). Both gable ends contain a window on each story, one above the other. The short ell, which projects toward the tower, features a pair of openings on each level. A short shed roofed porch carries across the west elevation of this ell. Behind it is a second entrance.
3. OILHOUSE-CONTRIBUTING BUILDING
A short distance to the west of the dwelling is the oil house, This diminutive brick building was constructed in 1905. It has a gable roof and a door and ventilator in one end.
4. BOATHOUSE-CONTRIBUTING BUILDING
The rectangular frame boathouse, which was built in 1881, is located at the far western end of the island. A long wooden walkway leads from the boathouse to the dwelling passing the oil house on the way.