Maine’s lighthouses added to world monuments watch list
File Photo / Jim Neuger
The West Quoddy Head Lighthouse, photographed at sunrise on Aug. 16, 2019, is one of 66 light stations added to a world monuments watch list.
Among Maine’s most visible icons, the state’s lighthouses are now on the world’s radar.
The World Monuments Fund added Maine light stations to its 2025 World Monuments Watch.
The stations were nominated by Maine Preservation, a statewide nonprofit advocacy organization.
“The widespread damage caused by the January 2024 storms has forever changed the conversation and course of lighthouse preservation in Maine and beyond,” said Bob Trapani Jr., executive director of the American Lighthouse Foundation.
The listing is expected to provide a boost for the stations and the work needed to make them more resilient, he added.
Maine Preservation nominated the lighthouses to the list a year ago.
Although Maine’s lighthouses have proven their resilience in the face of tumultuous weather and sea conditions for over two centuries, today’s extreme storms are prompting concern among preservationists.
According to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of all other ocean surface on the planet, meaning the rate of change in rising seas and storm surges impacting Maine’s light stations is among the most extreme, according to a news release.
A pair of storms in 2024 saw crashing waves and ripping winds wreak havoc on light stations.
Maine has 66 light stations, each purposefully positioned on low-lying peninsulas and small outcroppings along the most dangerous parts of Maine’s waterways.
“Being named to the Watch List of the World Monuments Fund is a meaningful acknowledgement of both the global importance of our Maine lighthouses as a cultural resource and the unique threat they face with sea level rise here in the Gulf of Maine," said Ford Reiche, president of the Presumpscot Foundation, a Freeport organization that has owned and restored a half dozen Maine buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, mostly historic churches and lighthouses. "It will help in our continuing work with policymakers, regulators and funders."
“Now is the time to raise awareness, develop strategies and adapt Maine’s iconic light stations to be more resilient,” said Tara Kelly, executive director of Yarmouth-based Maine Preservation. “They can be repaired, prepared and adapted — serving as a model for other vulnerable cultural resources along coasts around the globe.”
Maine Preservation, in partnership with the American Lighthouse Foundation, said it would use inclusion on the Watch to lead discussion around disaster recovery and climate resilience planning and action. The goal is to help stewards obtain resources to recover from storm damage and prepare for the next. That could include collecting case studies from along the Maine coast that identify common climate change impacts, considering practical resiliency improvements, and developing effective decision-making processes to make the most of the critical time following disaster and damage.
The lighthouses join a wide variety of cultural heritage sites facing major challenges, such as Gaza’s Historic Urban Fabric; Ukraine’s Teacher’s House in Kyiv; Africa’s Swahili Coast; the Old City of Antakya, Türkiye; and Chapel of the Sorbonne, France. The 25 sites represent 29 countries across five continents and the moon, according to a news release.
The World Monuments Watch was created in 1996 to raise awareness about heritage places in need of protection and to galvanize support for their preservation.
To date, World Monuments Fund, headquartered in New York City, has contributed more than $110 million toward projects at more than 300 watch sites. The visibility has helped communities leverage an additional $300 million from other sources.
Founded in 1972, Maine Preservation promotes and preserves historic places, buildings, downtowns and neighborhoods.
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