Loss of Crabtree Ledge Lighthouse

By Maine Lights Today Staff August 31, 2020

The following mention about the demise of Crabtree Ledge Lighthouse (also known locally as Hancock Point Lighthouse) appeared in the Bar Harbor Times on February 16, 1950…

“Hancock Point Lighthouse finally gave up the ghost after standing guard at Hancock Point for sixty years. What remained of the structure collapsed last week. The lighthouse located on a ledge in the northern end of Frenchman’s Bay, was erected and put into service in 1890, under the presidency of Benjamin Harrison. It was ordered out of commission in 1933 when steamship travel slackened in the waters off the coast. Newbold Noyes of the Washington Star bought the lighthouse when the government offered it to the highest bidder. It has been sold twice since then.”

According to lighthouse historian Jeremy D’Entremont, “it’s said that much of the structure still lies in one piece” just off the ledge upon which it once stood guard.

Crabtree Ledge Lighthouse Quick Facts

• The lighthouse was located a mile off Hancock Point, along the northern side of Frenchman Bay.
• Construction of the lighthouse was finished on December 31, 1889
• The lighthouse exhibited its light for the first time on January 15, 1890
• Height of lighthouse: 37-feet
• Focal plane of light above the water: 49-feet
• Optic: Fifth Order Fresnel lens
• Characteristic: Fixed white varied by a white flash every two minutes
• Range: 12 nautical miles
• Fog Bell: 1,200 pound bell struck by machinery; one stroke every 10 seconds
• The color of the structure was changed from a brown tower to a black cylindrical caisson and white conical tower on June 11, 1903
• Decommissioned: 1933