Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park Fully Restored Eight Months After Storms

A dozen chimes rang out from the fog bell at Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park on Saturday, Sept. 14, though not for their intended purpose of warning sailors away from the rocky shore.

At a ceremony at the park, Bristol Parks and Recreation employee Jim Hazell rang the bell and Bristol Parks Commission Chair Clyde Pendleton ceremoniously cut a ribbon to signify the end of repairs to damages done to the park’s buildings in January.

“I’m excited that we were able to finish it, that it looks as good as it does, and that everybody is just so happy to be able to look at it, go inside of it, and see how everything looks,” Bristol Parks Director Shelley Gallagher said. “It’s exciting to see, and knowing the reception that it’s gotten from everybody, it just makes me happy and relieved that it’s done.”

In two storms on Jan. 10 and Jan. 13, strong winds, higher than normal high tides and heavy rain pounded coastal Maine. The storms left $70 million in estimated damages across the state in its wake and qualified for a presidential major disaster declaration in March.

Much of the damage sustained by the bell house was delivered by the Jan. 10 storm. High waves knocked in the sea-facing wall of the bell house and the fencing surrounding the structure was destroyed.

“We started Jan. 10,” said Gallagher. “That was the storm – the first storm, and literally, we were out here in the storm, and when the first storm passed that day we started coming in and shoring up the (bell house) to try to get it to make it through high tide that night. We started working on this, literally the day of the first storm, just to get it so it didn’t collapse down.”

Gallagher spent much of the eight months since wrangling contractors to fix damages from the storms. Originally, she said received work bids upwards of $750,000 to repair the bell house, but Bristol Parks only ended up spending around $150,000. Gallagher said contractors were willing to work for less money because of the historic nature of the project.

Gallagher said she submitted a total of $232,000 for reimbursement to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, though the immediate cost of repair has been covered by the Bristol Parks budget.

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Bristol Parks employee Steve Hendrix repaired the fencing in June to help lessen expenses on the project, according to Gallagher. A youth group from Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church in New Jersey repainted the fence after it was back in place, Gallagher said.

Larry Luce Masonry, of Union, and worked to restore the brick structure of the bell house in June and August. Company owner Larry Luce said his company reused two-thirds of the bricks needed to rebuild the structure’s walls.

Pendleton said the bell house now has fiberglass rebar and stainless steel rods anchoring the roof to the bedrock, which should improve the structure’s resistance to storms and rust.

“I’m hoping it was one of those 100-year storms,” Pendleton said.

The bell house was originally built in 1897 to house the hand-operated fog bell. Lighthouse keepers used the bell in poor-visibility weather to warn sailors that the shore was near, according to Gallagher.

Storms in April 1991 dealt heavy damage to the white weight tower and roof of the bell house. When Hurricane Bob hit Maine in August later that year, the tower and bell house were completely destroyed. In 1992, both were rebuilt.

“Since then, how many storms have hit that building?” Pendleton asked. “It took this one to take it out.”

The 12,000-15,000 pound fog bell happened to be inside the bell house rather than its usual position suspended from a beam on the seaward side of the building when the Jan. 10 storm hit, Gallagher said.

“We had cut it down in August the year before because that beam had rotted,” Gallagher said. “It was inside the building. If it wasn’t, it probably would have been lost to sea.”

South Bristol resident Peter MacCready offered to donate a frame for the bell, and Round Pond Marine supplied the crane to move a new 12-inch-by-12-inch beam into place for the bell to hang on.

The ceremony took place on Maine Open Lighthouse Day, when the park and lighthouse opened free of admission charges.

“There is a sigh of relief,” Pendleton said. “I’m going on vacation, so I’m trying to get everything in before I leave. This was the last hump to get things down and be able to go.”

Dozens of Bristol locals and out-of-towners watched Hazell swing the blunt end of a hatchet to ring the fog bell on a clear, nearly cloudless day.

To learn more about Pemaquid Point Lighthouse Park, go to bristolmaine.org/home/parks-recreation or call 563-1800.