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Seguin, Maine

Harbour Lights Limited Edition #256

Tucked away in the northeast corner of the United States, perched high on its very own island, sits a lighthouse as thickly cloaked in lore and mystery -as it is in the area's notorious fog,

Though much of the history of Seguin Island Light Station remains somewhat of an enigma, one thing is certain: the setting couldn't be more perfect for a lighthouse. When, in 1786, 55 local merchants petitioned for a lighthouse, they noted that the "island Seguin seems to be designated by nature for this purpose." Even so, sometimes destiny takes its sweet time. Ten years passed before President George Washington ordered the first Seguin Island Light, finished in 1795 for $6,300, At 186 feet -above sea level, it is Maine's highest light, and one of the country's oldest.

While an isolated island wrapped in fog is the perfect place for a light station, it is also an atmosphere conducive to human tragedy. Count John Polereczky, a Frenchman, became Sequin's first keeper. The job was meant as a reward for his service in the American Revolution, but became more like punishment. He had to purchase his own boat and supplies --- and he complained that at $200 per year, he simply didn't make enough money to do so. In the first year alone, he lost a small boat, a canoe, and a large boat worth $300. Evidently, no one listened. Polereczky died penniless and boatless on Seguin.

Some say it was his ghost that haunted later keepers: They reported doors opening and closing by themselves and mysterious coughing from an unseen source- Others believe that the instigator was the ghost of a nineteenth century keeper, or that of his wife, who played the same tune on the piano --- over and over and over again until she drove the keeper insane. He hacked apart the piano with an ax. He killed her and then killed himself. Legend claims that the same piano tune can be heard drifting from the island on still, calm evenings. 

Despite Sequin's strange and tragic stories, there are even more happier accounts. Another keeper's wife, Connie Small, along with many others, loved her time on the island and wrote of it in a thoughtful book called The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife. She describes being in the lantern room at sunset and watching the other lights come on along the coastline. "I felt that spiritually we visited with the people in all those lights, we knew they were trying to do the same thing we were, protecting navigation." We honor those protectors with this depiction of the Seguin Island Light Station as it looked at the end of the 19th century.

Click on each image to view a larger size in a new window.

Photography By Paul L. Brady © Harbour Lights  December 13, 2001