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Isle au Haut Light (Robinson Point Light) By: Erin Bourne & Katie McCormack


 * T**he island called Isle au Haut, located on the coast of Maine, received its name from explorer Samuel de Champlain, who called it "Isle Haute" or "High Island". He named it this because the highest elevation is 556 feet towers above other islands in the area. There was once a population of about 800 people living on the island, including two dozen shipmasters. Today, there are only about 50 year-round residents, with more people visiting during the summer months. Isle au Haut was the nation's last community to stop using crank-style telephones also.

Located on this island, Isle au Haut Light was established at Robinson Point in 1907 for $14,000. It was the last traditional style lighthouse built in the state of Maine. A lighthouse is a tower, building, or framework designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire. These lights are used as an aid for navigation at sea. Lighthouses are used to mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals and reefs and safe entries to harbors and can also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and replacement by modern electronic navigational aids. The first keeper of the Robinson Point Light was Francis Elmer Holbrook, who ran the lighthouse from 1907 to 1922. The second keeper was Harry Smith, who ran the lighthouse from 1922 to 1933.



The lighthouse consists of a brick tower on a granite base with a total height of 40 feet. The tower is slightly offshore and is reached via a wooden walkway. The lighthouse flashes red every four seconds. Adjacent to this lighthouse is located a 2 1/2-story wood keeper's house, an oil house, and a storage shed. They were also built in 1907. The lighthouse can be visited by taking a ferry to Isle au Haut from Stonington and then walking to the lighthouse. The grounds are open to the public, but the lighthouse is not.

Isle au Haut Light was automated in 1934, and the property, except for the lighthouse tower, was subsequently purchased by Charles E. Robinson, a resident of the island, who was Linda Greenlaw's great-grandfather. Back in 1906, Robinson had sold the land to the federal government for the establishment of the light station. The lighthouse was lit for the first time on Christmas Eve of 1907. Only two keepers lived on the point, before the light was automated in 1934. At that time the dwelling was sold back to Greenlaw's grandparents. For the next 50 years, the keeper's house served as a summer home for three generations of the family. Sharing the lighthouse property between numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins proved divisive, and the family put it on the market in 1986. Among the family members who spent summers at the house was Linda Greenlaw, who wrote about it in her book //The Lobster Chronicles//. The lighthouse is named after the family name, Robinson Point Light.



In 1986, the property, except for the lighthouse, was purchased by Jeff and Judi Burke who have used it as a bed and breakfast inn. In 2009, they continue to live there, though this wonderful property is up for sale.

The lighthouse remains in service as of 2009. The current optic for the light is a 250 mm solar powered lens which flashes red every four seconds with a white sector. The light that is now solar powered, acts as an active aid to navigation maintained by the Coast Guard. Under the Maine Lights Program, the lighthouse was turned over to the Town of Isle au Haut in April 1998. A complete restoration of the lighthouse was finished in June 1999. The concerned residents of the island raised $62,000 for the remodeling of the lighthouse. They then formed the Isle au Haut Lighthouse Committee.





Workers from the Campbell Construction Company of Beverly, Massachusetts, repaired a bulge in the exterior of the lighthouse and removed a concrete shell that had been added to the tower's base. The lantern railing, windows, and doors were replaced with carefully crafted replicas of the originals, and the entire structure was repainted. The lighthouse now looks much as it did when it was built, and it is considered to be in good shape for its second century. The original Fresnel lens is kept at the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, Maine.

Isle Au Haut Light Station was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The Coast Guard transferred the lighthouse to the Town of Isle au Haut in 1998 under the Maine Lights Program and the tower was completely restored in 1999.

[] All pictures were taken by Erin and Katie