Life-Saving Station

Under renovation

Photo 79s, July 2016

Life-Saving Station

Under renovation, detail

Photo 79d, July 2016

Life-Saving Station

Portsmouth Harbor (Wood Island) Life-Saving Station (1908) Kittery, ME

The Wood Island Station was erected in 1908 on Wood Island in Kittery Point, Maine. It replaced an existing 1888 station, the Jerry’s Point Station, across the river in New Castle, New Hampshire. The building is a modified Duluth-type station, designed by architect George R. Tolman and built by Sudgen Brothers of Portsmouth, NH. It remained active until 1948, when it was replaced by a new station, back again in New Castle, called Station Portsmouth Harbor.

Its life saving duties ended in 1941 when, during the Second World War, it served to protect Portsmouth Harbor and its submarine manufacturing base from Nazi submarines. Wood Island Station was occupied by the US Navy and was part of an extensive network of harbor defenses that included mines, sonar and a massive metal mesh netting that extended from both shores of the Piscataqua River to Wood Island and closed the entire entrance from the river’s surface to its bottom.

Photo 55, July 2010

Life-Saving Station

Photo 139q, July 2010

Life-Saving Station

Photo 141, July 2010

Life-Saving Station

Photo 58, Sept 2007

Life-Saving Station

Photo 18, Sept 2007

Life-Saving Station

Photo 261, Oct 2001