This photograph shows the third of three light towers erected at West Quoddy Head beginning in 1808. This tower and its house, the latter expanded in 1899, were begun in 1857 and completed in 1858. They remain in use as of 2010. However the 1565-lb. bell on its 18-foot wooden tower, operated by a clockwork mechanism and weights like a giant tallcase clock and erected ca. 1852, was superceeded by steam and then air powered fog warning devices. This ended the keeper’s climb every six hours to wind the mechanism.

Note the fresnel lens atop the tower. Lit by oil-fired lamps until electrification in 1932, the Paris-fabricated lens also remains in routine use in 2010. The copper dome was replaced in 2004, but the bronze ball on top is original. Through most of its life the tower has been painted with eight red and seven white stripes, colors assumed identical at this early date.