On the Market: A Lighthouse Keeper’s Enchanting Island Home
Operate it as an inn or claim it as a family compound, and share an isle with Acadia National Park.
Photo via The Knowles Company
99 Lighthouse Road, Isle Au Haut, ME
Price: $1,975,000
Size: 2,500 square feet
Bedrooms: 4
Baths: 2
In describing this estate, listing agent Jamie O’Keefe paints a scene worth meditating on these days: “On a sunny, blue-skied day, the property is just magic. Dramatic granite ledges, blue ocean, and offshore islands as far as the eye can see. It’s so beautiful, it’s almost like a Hollywood set of a quintessential Maine lighthouse property.”
Except it’s not an imaginary happy place or a movie set—it’s a real place on a Maine island that is actually on the market. Nowadays the lighthouse, which is maintained by the town and owned separately from the rest of the property, is automated, so there’s no need to fully lean into this new lifestyle of isolation by applying for a job as a lightkeeper. For a relic of the good old days, though, you can take to the Oil House, a tiny cabin that was once used to store the oil that originally fueled the tower’s light. Another small outbuilding, called Matt’s House, is also about 200 square feet and provides just enough room to sleep or spend a cozy afternoon (there’s a separate outhouse). Another structure, the guest house, provides an estimated 900 square feet of extra space and comprises a living room, kitchen, bedroom, sleeping loft, and a full bath. The estate also includes a boat house, a deepwater dock, and unbeatable access to Acadia National Park, which partly occupies Isle Au Haut, too.
The 2,500-square-foot main home, which sits at the end of a long, elevated walkway leading to the lighthouse, has served several roles over the years. First, as a keeper’s house, and then in 1986, former owners Jeff and Judi Burke opened it as an inn. They operated it for 20 years, before retiring and passing it on to a new owner, who continued to run it as Keeper’s House Inn until 2019, when he instead began renting the entire home out as a summer vacation property.
Inside the four-bedroom house, hand-carved railings and original wood floors make the rooms as charming as you would hope. A great big butcher block-topped island centers the sky blue kitchen, and in an upstairs bedroom, a window frames the lighthouse so perfectly that it looks like a picture hung on the wall. In these uncertain days, living at the foot of a beacon that shines a light out into the unknown seems particularly soothing.
For information, contact Jamie O’Keefe, The Knowles Company, knowlesco.com.
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
Photo via The Knowles Company
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