Mount Desert Light is a lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 on Mount Desert Rock, a small island about 18 nautical miles (33.3 km) south of Mount Desert Island

Mount Desert Island

Mount Desert Island , in Hancock County, Maine, is the largest island off the coast of Maine. With an area of it is the 6th largest island in the contiguous United States. Though it is often claimed to be the third largest island on the eastern seaboard of the United States, it is actually second...

, and is part of the US state of Maine. The lighthouse was first established in 1830.

History

• 1847 Present structure built, designed by Alexander Parris
  Alexander Parris
  Alexander Parris was a prominent American architect-engineer. Beginning as a housewright, he evolved into an architect whose work transitioned from Federal style architecture to the later Greek Revival. Parris taught Ammi B. Young, and was among the group of architects influential in founding what...
  
  
• 1858 Bell tower, bell, new lantern, and 3rd order Fresnel lens
  Fresnel lens
  A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...
  
   installed
• 1889 Fog bell replaced by a steam whistle
• 1892 Current keeper's house built
• 1931 Electrified with two generators
• 1977 Automated
• At about the same time the Fresnel lens was replaced by an aero-beacon and the lantern was removed.
• 1985 Replica lantern installed
• About ten years later, the aero-beacon was replaced with a VRB-25
  VRB-25
  The VRB-25 is a lighthouse optical system designed and built by Vega Industries Ltd. in Porirua, New Zealand. It was originally designed in 1993-95 with the assistance of the United States Coast Guard to meet USCG requirements for a robust mechanism requiring minimum maintenance. It has become the...
  
   lighthouse system.
• 1998 Transferred to the College of the Atlantic
  College of the Atlantic
  The College of the Atlantic, founded in 1969, is a private, alternative liberal-arts college located in Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Maine, United States. It awards a bachelor's degree solely in the field of human ecology, though with a variety of emphases. The college is small, with...
  
   as part of the Maine Lights program. It is used as an ecology research station, primarily known for work on finback and humpback whale
  Humpback Whale
  The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from and weigh approximately . The humpback has a distinctive body shape, with unusually long pectoral fins and a knobbly head. It is an acrobatic animal, often breaching and slapping the...
  
  s.

The station is both farther offshore and more exposed than any other lighthouse on the east coast. It sustained relatively minor damage in Hurricane Daisy (1962)

Hurricane Daisy (1962)

Hurricane Daisy was a moderate hurricane in the 1962 Atlantic hurricane season, that caused severe damage in New England, and the Canadian Maritimes. The fourth named storm of the 1962 Atlantic hurricane season, it became a tropical depression on September 29, while moving west-northwest. On...

 and Hurricane Bill (2009)

Hurricane Bill (2009)

Hurricane Bill was a relatively large Atlantic tropical cyclone, attaining a maximum gale-diameter of 460 mi . A Cape Verde type hurricane, Bill originated from a tropical wave that emerged from the western coast of Africa on August 12, and organized into a tropical depression near the Cape...

.

Mount Desert Light was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Mount Desert Light Station on March 14, 1988, reference number 88000155.

Keepers

• Esais Preble (1833–1835) 
• William Preble (assistant, 1833–1835)
• Benjamin Ward Jr. (1841–?)
• Jacob L. Richardson (1848–1850)
• David King (1850–1853)
• Rufus King (1853–1859) 
• William H. Ward (assistant, 1855–1858) 
• John Dolliver Jr. (assistant, 1858–1859)
• George Booth (1859–1860) 
• B. Thurber (assistant, 1859–1864)
• Joseph Hopkins (1860–1861)
• William E. Holden (1861–1864)
• Seth H. Higgins (assistant 1864–1865, principal keeper 1865–1867) 
• David Rollins (assistant, 1865–1867) 
• Dan Ladd (assistant, 1865)
• J. A. Williken (1867–1868) 
• William Gilley (assistant, 1867)
• Dan B. Eaton (assistant, 1867–1871)
• Otis W. Kent (1868–1872) 
• Perry W. Richardson (assistant, 1868–1870 and 1871–1872) 
• Amos B. Newman (assistant, 1870–1872, principal keeper 1872–1881) 
• Mark W. Hodgson (assistant, 1872–1882) 
• William P. Sawyer (second assistant 1872–1878)
• James A. Morris (assistant, 1874–1876)
• Frank Collins (assistant, 1876–1877)
• Howard P. Robbins (second assistant 1878–1882)
• James A. Morris (1881–1882)
• Thomas R. Milan (1882–1902) 
• William Stanley (assistant 1882–1883)
• Benjamin Maddox (assistant, 1883–1888)
• Howard M. Gilley (second assistant 1883–1887)
• Lewis F. Sawyer (second assistant 1887–1888, first assistant 1888–1889)
• Willis Dolliver (second assistant 1887–1890, first assistant 1890–1891)
• William J, Newman (second assistant 1890, first assistant 1890)
• Thomas R. Savage (second assistant 1891–1892)
• Orrin L. Milan (second assistant 1892–1895, first assistant 1895–1897)
• Charles Thurston (second assistant 1895–1897, first assistant (1897–1899)
• Fred M. Robbins (second assistant 1898–1899, first assistant 1899–1902, principal keeper (1902–1911) 
• Joseph M. Gray (assistant, c. 1900)
• Bert Richard (assistant, c. 1901)
• Herbert P. Richardson (second assistant c. 1902)
• Charles H. Newman (assistant, c. 1902–1908)
• William H. C. Dodge (second assistant c. 1902–1908)
• Vinal O. Beal (second assistant 1909–1910, first assistant 1910–1911, principal keeper 1911–1918) 
• W. P. Kent (assistant, 1909–1910)
• Wilbert F. Lurney (second assistant 1910, first assistant 1911-unknown)
• Charles A. Radley (second assistant 1911-unknown);
• Arthur Edward Ginn (c. 1918-early 1920s)
• George York (1928–1936)
• Robert G. Wass (c. 1930s) 
• Everett Quinn (assistant c. 1935)
• H. C. Day (assistant c. 1935).
• Ralph Demons (c. 1950)