Lighthouses for Sale in Maine

Are any Maine lighthouses for sale?

None is on the private market in this directory today. GSA offered the Little Mark Island monument, a stone tower in Harpswell, at no cost in 2023. Ram Island Ledge and Boon Island have both sold at auction.

We will add a listing the day one comes on the market, and you can set an alert on the directory.

What have Maine lighthouses sold for?

Two Maine lights are in our sale records. Ram Island Ledge, a mile off Cape Elizabeth, sold for $190,000 in 2010 against a $10,000 minimum, after two bidders flipped a coin to decide who would drop out. Boon Island, a 133-foot tower six miles off York, sold for $78,000 in August 2014.

Boon Island drew more than a dozen bidders and has been resold since, to a Boston buyer. The Ram Island buyer was a Windham surgeon. Both prices are on the sold lighthouses table.

Who owns Maine’s lighthouses?

About 28 of Maine’s lighthouses moved to towns, state agencies and nonprofits in 1998 through the Maine Lights Program. Congress created the program in 1996, and four more lights went to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The program pre-dates the 2000 national law. Lighthouses that were not part of it now move under the federal process, with a free offer first and an auction if no one qualifies. See free lighthouse transfers.

How do you find the next Maine lighthouse for sale?

Watch three places: GSA’s lighthouse offerings, the National Park Service list of notices of availability, and private listings on MLS sites and owners’ pages. This directory tracks all three and will show a Maine light here as soon as one appears.

Read the lease and access terms first, and ask what the Coast Guard keeps on the property.