Free event!

The third installment of our 2025 Summer Speaker Series, featuring a talk on the construction of the Second Minot’s Ledge Lighthouse following the catastrophic 1851 destruction of the First Minot’s Ledge Lighthouse, by local historian Joe Lebhertz.

Joe Lebherz has dedicated the last twenty years to preserving and restoring lighthouses. He served as a curator at the Maine Lighthouse Museum and was a founding member of the American Lighthouse Foundation. His notable works include building a replica of the Second Minot’s Ledge Light Watch Room, complete with the beacon’s original rotating mechanism, Fresnel lens, and a 640-lb bronze fog bell, located on Government Island. Additionally, he crafted a 5-foot scale model of the first Minot’s Ledge Light using brass fittings to investigate its collapse 16 months after construction.