Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse is located on the west side of the entrance to Portland Harbor. It is one of only three surviving "spark plug" style lighthouses left in Maine. Congress appropriated $20,000 for the construction, but setbacks due to storms and poor quality cement, ran the cost of the tower to $45,000. Construction began on the 54-foot tower in August 1896.
Spring Point Ledge was built in four levels, plus a basement storeroom and cistern for fuel and water. The first deck housed the gallery, second level was the keepers' office and living quarters, third level was for the assistant keeper and the fourth level the watchroom. The lantern was fitted with a fifth-order Fresnel lens. The light was activated on May 24, 1897. In 1934 the light was automated.
The lighthouse was only accessible by boat until 1956, at which time the granite breakwater, started in 1951, was completed with the final ring of stones surrounding the light. The lighthouse is still an active aid to navigation, with a light that flashes white every six seconds, with two red sectors and a fog signal that blasts every ten seconds. On April 28, 1998, the Maine Lights Selection Committee transferred Spring Point Ledge Light to the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse Trust. The Trust maintains the structure and the USCG retains responsibility of the beacon.
Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The lighthouse can be viewed easily from the breakwater at Fort Preble on the SMCC campus and is open to the public at special times. You can contact the Trust at 207.699.2676 or http://www.springpointlight.org
Fort Preble was built in 1808, periodically modernized, and manned until 1950, when it became Southern Maine Community College. Confederate sailors were imprisoned here after an unsuccessful raid on the harbor in 1863.
After the War of 1812 the US Army Corps of Engineers proposed a new fortification on Hog Island Ledge to support forts Preble and Scammel and to cover the northeastern approaches to the harbor. Funding for the fort was approved by Congress in 1857, and construction began the next year. A wharf and stone cutting shed were built on Hog Island Ledge, footings laid, and erection of the walls begun. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, work was speeded up. By 1864, the fort was well on its way to completion and twenty-six guns had been mounted while construction continued. By 1865, work was completed according to the original plan, and it was named in honor of Sir Ferninando Gorges, colonial proprietor of Maine.
In 1869 a modernization project was begun to upgrade the fort. Guns and gun platforms on the third level were removed, and new emplacements for larger guns begun on the north, east and west faces with adjacent powder magazines, with parapets and magazines protected by sod-covered sand. An embankment or "parados" of sod-covered sand was built on the south face to protect the rear of the guns and magazines. A two-story "great magazine" was built on the east end of the parade ground to store the large amounts of powder required by larger guns. Thirty-four guns remained mounted in the casements on the first and second levels of the fort.
In 1876, Congress ended funding for the modernization project with work on the third level unfinished. At the time of the Spanish War, thirty-one guns remained mounted, but these were salvaged shortly thereafter. In 1897, the Army constructed a submarine mine storehouse in the center of the parade ground with a small railroad running from it to a crane at the end of the wharf. A caretaker, Charles Rust, and his family lived in the fort in the apartments to the east of the entrance until 1916. His granddaughter was born there.
In the 1930s, the Coast Guard installed an aid-to-navigation beacon in the fort which was powered by a generator and shown out through one of the gun embrasures. In 1940s, rolls of steel cable for submarine mines, submarine nets or moorings were stored in the fort in the mine storehouse and casements In 1946, the fort was declared surplus by the General Services Administration. In 1960, Fort Gorges was acquired by the City of Portland as an historic site.
FORT GORGES FACTS
Name: Named for Englishman Sir Ferdinando Gorges (1566-1647), colonial proprietor of Maine. Construction: Built of granite and brick with iron beams supporting the floors of the officers apartments. Apartments were finished with wood lath and plaster, wooden floors, doors, and double-hung windows. Floors and ceilings of the powder magazines were built of wood, with concealed nails to avoid sparks.
First Level: The first level contained twenty-eight casements for 10-inch Rodman guns with flues to exhaust powder smoke, and embrasures protected by iron stutters. Powder magazines were located in the northeast and northwest corners of the fort. The north end of the fort contained officers apartments, store rooms, a bakery, and privies, which emptied into the ocean. In 1869-76 the magazine in the northeast corner was expanded into the parade ground area.
Second Level: The second level also included twenty-eight casements for 10-inch Rodman guns, and powder magazines in the northeast and northwest corners. Circular staircases on the southeast and southwest corners of the parade ground gave access to the second and third levels of the fort.
Third Level: This level was originally planned for thirty-nine emplacements for 10-inch Rodman guns. In the years from 1869 to 1876, it was rebuilt to mount eleven 15-inch Rodman guns protected by earth parapets, with adjacent powder magazines. Funding ran out before the modernization was completed.
Troops: 500 men would have been required to man all of the guns. The gun casements on the first and second levels would have been framed in, and doors, windows and stoves installed to serve as quarters for the enlisted men, but the fort was never permanently garrisoned.
Water: There are two brick water cisterns in the parade ground and four in the floors of the apartments.
Armament: In 1864 there were 26 smoothbore, muzzle-loading 10-inch Rodman guns (similar to the gun shown here) mounted on the first level and three rifled, muzzle-loading Parrott guns mounted on the third level. Although the fort was not garrisoned, it could have been quickly manned with troops from Fort Preble or Fort Scammel. In 1870 there were twenty-eight 10-inch Rodman guns mounted, plus six Parrott guns. In 1896, a 300-pound (10-inch) rifled Parrott gun was raised to the third level, where it remains un-mounted. The rest of the guns were scrapped after 1898.
Range of Guns: A 10-inch Rodman gun fired a 125-pound projectile 3 miles.
FORT GORGES VISITOR INFORMATION
There is no ferry service to Fort Gorges, but it can be reached in small boats. Visitors enter the fort at their own risk and are urged to use caution as there are hazardous areas within the fort. Do not enter the powder magazines on the second level because the floors are missing. Do not enter the powder magazines on the first level without a flashlight. Do not climb on the earth-covered powder magazines and gun emplacements on the third level for there is danger of falling and of causing damage to the sod which will lead to erosion.
Light fires only in the fire ring on the parade ground. Please keep fire away from the stonework because it shatters the granite. Do not remove wood from the apartments or powder magazines as they are being restored. There are no rest rooms. Please carry out all trash. Your help in preserving this historic structure for future generations will be greatly appreciated.
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Recommended Reading
Bradley, Robert. Forts of Maine. Augusta, 1980.
Lewis, Emmanuel W. Seacoast Fortifications of the United States: An Introductory History. Washington, DC, 1970.
Parkman, Aubry. The Corps of Engineers in New England, 1775-1975. Waltham, MA, 1978.
To view an extensive history of the Greater Portland area from 1632 to 1864, read The History of Portland, from 1632 TO 1864: With a Notice of Previous Settlements Colonial Grants and Changes of Government in Maine - By William Willis
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