SUMMARY: Browns Head Light is a lighthouse in the town of Vinalhaven, Maine. Established in 1832, this active navigational aid marks the western entrance to the Fox Island Thoroughfare, a busy strait separating Vinalhaven Island and North Haven. The present lighthouse was constructed in 1857 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 27, 1983 as "Browns Head Light Station."
MORE INFORMATION: Browns Head Light Station Facts & Figures
- Station Established: 1832
- First Lit: 1857 (Current Tower)
- Construction: Material - Brick |Â Shape - Cylindrical Tower
- Markings: White
- Fog Signal: Horn - One blast every 10 seconds
- Operation: Automated - 1987
- Height: Tower - 20 Feet | Focal Plane - 39 Feet
- Range: 14 Nautical Miles (16 Miles) & 11 Nautical Miles (13 Miles)
- Optics: Earlier - Fifth-Order Fresnel Lens (1857)Â |Â Current - Fourth-Order Fresnel Lens (1902)
- Characteristic:Â Fixed white with two red sectors
- Other Existing Buildings: 1857 Keeper's House, 1903 Oil House
- Current Ownership, Maintenance & Preservation: American Lighthouse Foundation
Visitor & Tour Information: The grounds are open, but the lighthouse is not open to the public. The lighthouse can also be viewed by boat or plane. Maine State Ferry provides car and passenger service from Rockland. Camden Harbor Cruises (207-236-6672) offers boat trips that include Browns Head Lighthouse. Sea Ventures Charters (207-446-5484) offers custom, personalized charters from St. George aboard the 38′ diesel-powered Lady Anne. Air tours are also available with Penobscot Island Air.
Directions: From the Vinalhaven ferry landing, proceed straight on Main Street for 0.3 miles, then turn left onto High Street. Turn right on North Haven Road after following High Street for 0.4 miles to its terminus. After traveling 6.5 miles along North Haven Road, turn left onto Tip Toe Mountain Road and then right onto Browns Head Light Road.
Lighthouse Trivia: Benjamin Eldridge Burgess, who became a keeper in 1867, married his second wife and raised seven children at the lighthouse. They also took in three grandchildren after the death of their mother. Sadly, three of Burgess' daughters passed away within a span of four years. The station was praised for its "exquisite neatness and order," and he was lauded as a "good man, a good servant of Uncle Sam, and a lifesaver of countless lives." Burgess retired in 1905 at the age of eighty-one after nearly four decades at Browns Head. Keeper Burgess was the oldest keeper in the lighthouse service during the final few years of his career.
Browns Head Lighthouse was one of the last lighthouses to be automated automated (1987) in the State of Maine.
