Press Releases

Wood Island Life Saving Station, Kittery, Maine.  Photo by Don Gargano

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree announced today that the Wood Island Life Saving Station Association would receive a $200,000 grant from the National Park Service for the restoration of a 107-year-old rescue base at the mouth of the Piscataqua River off the coast of Kittery. 

“I’m very excited that this federal investment will help preserve and restore the Wood Island Life Saving Station,” said Pingree.  “Since being built over a hundred years ago, this station has been at times a base for rescuing shipwrecked sailors and protecting the shipyard in Kittery.  I’m looking forward to its next chapter as a place for the community to learn more about Maine’s maritime history.” 

Built in 1908, the Wood Island Life Saving Station was used by the United States Life Saving Service (which later became the Coast Guard) to rescue mariners from shipwrecks off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire.  During WWII, the United States Navy used the station to protect submarine manufacturing at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. 

The property has sat unused since the 1950s and the building has deteriorated significantly. The Wood Island Life Saving Station Association formed in 2011 to keep the building from being torn down and raise funds for its restoration. The Town of Kittery owns the property.

The project received $200,000 in 2014 from the EPA’s Brownfield Program to clean up the site, which is contaminated with asbestos and lead paint. Today’s $200,000 grant from the National Park Service’s Maritime Heritage Program will go toward to the repair of the building. 

Pingree wrote letters of support for both grant applications. She is a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment, which oversees funding for the National Park Service and the EPA.