Battery Steele
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Battery Steele
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Battery Steele on Peaks Island, Portland, Maine
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| Location | Peaks Island, Portland, Maine |
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| Coordinates | 43°39′32″N 70°10′50″W / 43.65889°N 70.18056°WCoordinates: 43°39′32″N 70°10′50″W / 43.65889°N 70.18056°W |
| Built | 1942 |
| Architect | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers |
| NRHP Reference # | 82000745 |
| Added to NRHP | October 20, 2005 |
Battery Steele (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Battery Construction #102) is a United States military fortification on Peaks Island, Portland, Maine in Casco Bay. Completed in 1942 as part of World War II, it is located on 14 acres (5.7 ha) on the oceanside area of the island, formerly part of the Peaks Island Military Reservation. It is named for Harry Lee Steele, who was a Coast Artillery officer during World War I. It was armed with two 16-inch MkIIMI guns and, with a 12-inch gun battery at Fort Levett on Cushing Island, replaced all previous heavy guns in the Harbor Defenses of Portland. It was built to protect Casco Bay, particularly Portland harbor, from Kennebunk to Popham Beach in Phippsburg. According to Kim MacIsaac and historian Joel Eastman in An Island at War, “Battery Steele is not only the largest gun battery built on Peaks Island, but also an example of the largest battery ever built anywhere in the United States.” In 1995, after decades of non-use, the Peaks Island Land Preserve, a community land preservation group, formed to purchase the area and forever preserve it as a public space. On October 20, 2005, the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Other coast defense structures on the island include fire control towers and the counterweight for a disappearing searchlight tower (it "disappeared" when folded down).
Battery Steele was part of a comprehensive program begun in 1940 to replace obsolete coast defenses, many of which dated from the Endicott Program of 1885-1905. In the Harbor Defenses of Portland, the only large-caliber (8-inch or larger) pre-war battery still in use by 1944 was Battery Foote at Fort Levett, Cushing Island, casemated like Battery Steele to resist air attack and armed with two 12-inch guns on long-range carriages. Another two-gun 16-inch battery, Battery Construction Number (BCN) 101, was planned for the Cape Elizabeth Military Reservation near Two Lights State Park, but was cancelled as the threat to the US East Coast from surface ships was nearly non-existent by 1943.
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