It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Mount Desert Light Station in 1988.

[1] It is currently owned and operated by the College of the Atlantic, located in Bar Harbor, Maine.

The conical granite structure was one in a series of lighthouses in Maine designed by architect Alexander Parris.

The station was electrified in 1931 and automated in 1977; around that time, the lantern was removed and the lens was replaced aero-beacon.

In August 2009, the boathouse was washed away, two walls of the generator building were ripped apart, and all the furniture and equipment on the first floor of the lightkeeper's house were ruined when it flooded almost to the ceiling.