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Historic ‘Life Saving Station’ saved, to become museum

In this July 2016 photo provided by Sam Reid, historic preservation carpenter Arron (CQ) Sturgis works on the porch of a century-old rescue station undergoing restoration on Wood Island at the mouth of the Piscataqua River at Kittery Point, Maine. The long-shuttered building once an outpost of the defunct United States Life-Saving Service decommissioned in 1948, is destined to become a maritime museum. (Sam Reid/Wood Island Life Saving Station Association via AP)
In this July 2016 photo provided by Sam Reid, historic preservation carpenter Arron (CQ) Sturgis works on the porch of a century-old rescue station undergoing restoration on Wood Island at the mouth of the Piscataqua River at Kittery Point, Maine. The long-shuttered building once an outpost of the defunct United States Life-Saving Service decommissioned in 1948, is destined to become a maritime museum. (Sam Reid/Wood Island Life Saving Station Association via AP) In this July 2016 photo provided by Sam Reid, historic preservation carpenter Arron (CQ) Sturgis works on the porch of a century-old rescue station undergoing restoration on Wood Island at the mouth of the Piscataqua River at Kittery Point, Maine. The long-shuttered building once an outpost of the defunct United States Life-Saving Service decommissioned in 1948, is destined to become a maritime museum. (Sam Reid/Wood Island Life Saving Station Association via AP)

By Associated Press 2 min read

KITTERY, Maine (AP) – A long-shuttered, century-old rescue station on the border of Maine and New Hampshire is being restored with plans to turn it into a maritime history museum.

The building is located on Wood Island near the entrance of the Piscataqua River, on the Maine side of the state divide. It was once an outpost of the long-gone United States Life-Saving Service before being decommissioned in 1948 and then falling into neglect for decades.

The first phase of a restoration overseen by a local group called the Wood Island Life Saving Station Association will be completed next month.

The association, which is managing the project for the town of Kittery, anticipates the project will be completed by 2019 at a cost of $2.5 million; it is being funded by state and federal grants and private donors, said President Sam Reid. Work began in May.

The United States Life-Saving Service, for which the station was originally built, was created to save the lives of shipwrecked mariners. It merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Act to Create the Coast Guard.