Lighthouses Short & Tall
Portland Head Lighthouse
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Copyright Candace Clifford 2005

Note from President Thomas Jefferson
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Readers Guide
 
Refer to page 5 of Lighthouses Short and Tall for Portland Head Lighthouse

Our first presidential administration was so small that the cabinet met in the living room of a house George Washington rented in Germantown, Pennsylvania, just north of the capital, Philadelphia. George Washington had time to sign every lighthouse keeper’s appointment. Of course, our population was also small as well. Do you know how to find out what the population was in 1790?

Why do you think the Treasury Department was in charge of our first lighthouses? How many departments does our government have today?

Do you know how many departments there were in George Washington’s government? Only three: Department of Treasury, Department of War, and Department of State. There was also an Attorney General to supervise the courts and a Postmaster General to supervise post offices. If you had to assign lighthouses to one of the three departments, which would you choose? The Department of State dealt with foreign affairs; Department of War with military affairs. So only the Department of Treasury was left.

Collector [of Customs] Benjamin Lincoln is mentioned here. Customs collectors were officials of the Treasury Department. They were already located in the main ports, so the customs collectors were given the additional duty of superintending lighthouses.

Lighthouse Administration

1789 - 1852: U.S. Light-House Establishment under Secretary of Treasury (First managed by Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, then assigned to Commissioner of the Revenue in 1792, back to the Secretary from 1802 until 1813, and Commissioner of the Revenue from 1813 to 1820, and then finally to the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury Stephen Pleasonton)

1852 - 1901: U.S. Light-House Board under the Secretary of the Treasury

1901 - 1910: U.S. Light-House Board under the Secretary of Commerce

1910 - 1939: U.S. Bureau of Lighthouses under the Secretary of Commerce

1939 - present: U.S. Coast Guard (now under Department of Homeland Security)

1854 map showing Portland Head Lighthouse
1854 map showing location of Portland Head Lighthouse. What do you suppose the numbers represent?

Lighthouse Maps
First Lighthouse District
Can you find Portland Head Lighthouse on this map?

1stdistmap.jpg
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Source: 1881 Annual Report of the U.S. Light-House Board

Portland Head Fog Signal Building
Portland Head Fog Signal Building in 1938. USCG photo

This Reader's Guide is intended to be used with Lighthouses Short and Tall, a book for readers 11 and up written by Mary Louise and Candace Clifford.  It is available from the publisher, Cypress Communications, by using their book order form.

For more information contact books@lighthousehistory.info