Doubling Point Light is a
lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Lighthouses mar ...
on the
Kennebec River
The Kennebec River (Abenaki language, Abenaki: ''Kinəpékʷihtəkʷ'') is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 30, 2011 river within the U.S. state of Maine. It ri ...
in
Arrowsic, Maine.
It was established in 1898, fifteen years after the founding of the
Bath Iron Works, a major shipbuilder, upriver. It was part of a major upgrade of the river's lights — the Doubling Point Light and the separate
Range Lights
Leading lights (also known as range lights in the United States) are a pair of light beacons used in navigation to indicate a safe passage for vessels entering a shallow or dangerous channel; they may also be used for position fixing. At night ...
on the point,
Perkins Island Light, and
Squirrel Point Light were all built at the same time. The light was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
as Doubling Point Light Station on January 21, 1988.
It remains an active
aid to navigation.
Description and history
The Doubling Point Light is located on the lower Kennebec River, at a point where the normally south-flowing river makes a sharp turn to the east, followed by a turn back to the south. The light is set at the inside corner of the first of these turns, on the west side of Arrowsic Island, roughly opposite the mouth of Winnegance Creek. The light station includes a tower, keeper's house, shed, and oil house. The tower is an octagonal wood-frame structure, finished in wooden shingles, with an iron walkway around the lantern chamber. It is accessed via a three-span footbridge.
Near the tower is the keeper's house, an L-shaped -story wood-frame structure with hip-roofed porches. Also nearby are the gable-roofed tool shed, built in 1898, and the small brick oilhouse, added in 1906.
[
The city of Bath, located north (upriver) from this point, had been a major shipbuilding port for much of the 19th century, and the river was a major transportation artery all the way to Augusta. In 1892 the river below Bath was identified by the ]United States Lighthouse Board
The United States Lighthouse Board was the second agency of the U.S. federal government, under the Department of Treasury, responsible for the construction and maintenance of all lighthouses and navigation aids in the United States, between 1852 ...
as needing improved navigational aids
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...
, and a series of improvements were authorized. Funding was made available by Congress in 1895, and Doubling Point Light was built in 1898, along with the keeper's house and shed. The tower did not originally stand at its present location, to which it was moved in 1899, and the keeper's house was moved closer to the tower in 1901.[ The tower's original lens was a fifth-order Fresnel lens; it was automated in 1988.][
]
Gallery
See also
* Lighthouses in the United States
This is a list of lighthouses in the United States. The United States has had approximately a thousand lights as well as light towers, range lights, and pier head lights. Michigan has the most lights of any state with over 150 past and present li ...
*
References
External links
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Lighthouses completed in 1898
Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Lighthouses in Sagadahoc County, Maine
National Register of Historic Places in Sagadahoc County, Maine
1898 establishments in Maine