Dear Editor:

It seems odd to me that we will donate and spend thousands to renovate a lighthouse off the coast that most coming to this area will never see, and sacrifice a house everyone sees coming into town, a house with more history in this area then the lighthouse. As with many old houses in this area, it also will soon fall under the wrecking ball; the permit has been issued.  I’m sure that the lighthouse had more problems than the house does. Maybe that is why the house will be destroyed, no challenge to fix it.

According to local historian Barbara Rumsey, the Cuckolds light was established in 1892, one of the last built along the Maine coast near the end of the age of sail.

The Kenniston Inn, however, started out a little earlier. Kenniston moved here from Jefferson in 1796 and had an innkeeper’s license by 1798.  So the inn is believed to have been built around 1797.

I can remember the old place that was below my house, torn down to make a parking lot. Earlier that house sat where mine now sits. It was moved sometime in the late 1800s.  Looking at the old foundation my house now sits on, I’m sure the one gone was built in the 1700s also.

It’s sad to see what has changed in just the time that I grew up around here. I’m sure my father and grandfather saw just as much. I sometimes wonder why folks continue to come to this area when most of the old New England village is no longer here, and you need to take a boat to see what is being preserved.

Walter Reed
Boothbay Harbor