Every summer, Ann Swasey, a docent at the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse in South Portland, plays a game with herself. She tries to meet the visitor from farthest away, as well as the person who lives the closet.
So far this summer she’s already met someone visiting from China, but she’s still hoping to meet someone from Australia.
“I love it. This is my spot every Sunday morning, faithfully,” Swasey said.
Being a docent at the lighthouse is “the best volunteer position in Maine. It’s a wonderful, wonderful spot.”
Swasey is one of about 20 volunteers who work as docents at the lighthouse each summer, but these days, the trust needs more, particularly younger people, said Kathy Durham, the volunteer coordinator for the trust.
The basic job of the docents, Durham said, is “to give visitors an informative, entertaining and safe glimpse at what it was like to live in and care for the lighthouse.”
She said each docent is allowed to “develop their own story and style.” However, all docents are required to go through one all-day training session, usually held in the spring.
The trust makes its money in the summertime, opening the lighthouse to the public on weekends between mid-June and Labor Day, but for two weekends this month the lighthouse was closed to visitors.
It always closes the weekend of the Tri for a Cure, July 16 and 17, which raises money for the Maine Cancer Foundation, but the weekend before that, the trust didn’t open the lighthouse due to a lack of available docents.
That closure was unusual, said Durham, and the concern is that without an influx of new people, the trust may not be able to keep the lighthouse open as often as it would like.
Opening the lighthouse to the public is critical to being able to maintain it, according to Keith Thompson, president of the board of trustees.
“Summer is our bread and butter,” Thompson said. “The trust is solely responsible for the building and we don’t get any federal, state or local funds.”
So the Spring Point Ledge Light Trust relies on donations, ticket sales and grants to support its annual operating budget and necessary capital expenses. The trustees just submitted a grant they hope will provide enough funding to replace the leaded windows in the lighthouse with clear glass panes.
While Thompson said the trust is currently able to rely on “a good core of volunteers,” many of them are aging and the time commitment asked of docents is “a more than a lot of people are able to give.”
“We are an aging group,” Durham agreed, “so that’s why we need younger people willing to commit.”
A lack of volunteers, particularly younger ones, is not a problem unique to the lighthouse trust, but one that many all-volunteer nonprofit organizations are facing these days, Thompson said.
Trustees are also concerned about “losing the institutional knowledge” that’s built up since the trust first took ownership of the lighthouse 18 years ago.
The lighthouse got nine new docents through the Portland History Docents group this summer, which was a big help, Durham said.
Swasey, who lives in South Portland, began volunteering as a docent five years ago. She said what drew her to the post was the “wonderful history of the lighthouse,” which began operating in the spring of 1897.
She also said the lighthouse “holds a very special place in people’s hearts,” particularly for locals with an interest in South Portland’s seafaring history.
Originally, the lighthouse could only be reached by boat, but in 1950 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed the 900-foot breakwater by which visitors today can still access the lighthouse.
The lighthouse was fully automated in the 1960s and in 1998 it was deeded over to the Spring Point Ledge Light Trust, although the U.S. Coast Guard continues to operate the light and fog horn as critical aids to navigation in Portland Harbor.
As part of his sales pitch to recruit volunteers, Thompson said, “there are lots worse places to spend a summer weekend,” citing the natural beauty, as well as all the boating activity going on in the harbor.
He also said, “I sleep better on the nights when I’ve worked out here during the day. It’s all that fresh sea air.”
June and John McClean have volunteered with the Spring Point Ledge Light Trust since 2000 and are one of two married teams of docents who regularly volunteer their time to work at the lighthouse.
June McClean said she was drawn to the trust because she “wanted to get involved in the community and the lighthouse is just so interesting.”
What she finds the most captivating is learning how the keepers lived and worked at the lighthouse, which had only enough room for the keeper and assistant keeper, but not their families, if they had one.
In addition, she said, “I enjoy keeping something going that’s really a historic artifact.”
One of the strangest questions McClean can remember getting from visitors was a request to smell the air coming up from the basement.
“What visitors often don’t realize,” she added, “is that the light is still needed. It sends a white beam of light right down the shipping channel” to aid shipping traffic, as well as local boat traffic.
The Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse is the only caisson-style lighthouse in the country that people can walk out to – most of the others still in operation are surrounded by water.
The lighthouse was built on a foundation of cast-iron plates, creating a large tube, which was then filled with concrete. It’s unusual in that the three floors above the caisson are built with an interior wall of double brick.
The lighthouse at Spring Point is also built higher than the average caisson structure due to the large difference between high and low tide, which is generally 10 to 11 feet.
The lantern room at the lighthouse originally housed a 5th-order Fresnel lens, which relied on a clockwork that kept the lantern rotating and which had to be wound every two hours.
In general Thompson said, the light keepers worked eight hours on and eight hours off, seven days a week. They were allowed to go on shore once a day for supplies and to visit their families.
Thompson said in the early days, before electricity, sanitation, including access to fresh water, was a big issue, as was keeping warm in the winter months.
The main room, which was a kitchen and sitting room combined, and the keeper’s room just above, were originally heated with coal stoves. Other hardships included getting used to the bell, which resounded with a double strike every 12 seconds.
The bell, which was originally cast in 1887, is still featured at the lighthouse, although it’s no longer used now that an automated fog horn has been installed.
However, visitors to the lighthouse can strike the bell, which rings out in F sharp, according to Thompson. He said a visitor once asked what note the bell played and Thompson then recruited a local musician to come out and listen to the bell and name the note.
“The location is hard to beat and there is always something going on in the harbor. The views are stunning in almost any weather and it’s nearly always cooler at the lighthouse on hot and humid days,” Durham said.
But, she added, “For most of us, a major benefit is sharing something we love with others (and) working with others who share an interest in maritime history, making many friends along the way.”
Gus Wilson, one of the longest serving light keepers. He’s also been recognized as a significant folk artist for his carvings of wooden duck decoys.
The original bell at the lighthouse was cast in 1887.
The current lens room at the top of the lighthouse.
The light keeper’s room.
Stairs leading from the light keeper’s room to the lower level.
A view of the lighthouse in 1907, 10 years after it was built.
A look into the combined kitchen, sitting room at the lighthouse.
A look at Fort Gorges and Portland Harbor from the lighthouse balcony.
A view of the 900-foot breakwater leading out to the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse.
A view of the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse and the remains of Fort Preble in South Portland.
A closer look
The Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse in South Portland is open to the public every summer weekend 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. See www.springpointlight.org for more information about visiting.
The Spring Point Ledge Light Trust is auctioning off the American flag that has flown over the South Portland lighthouse for the past 10 years to raise money for needed repairs. The online auction runs through Aug. 6. See www.springpointlight.org for more information.
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