Retailer’s photo has Mainers seeing stripes

PORTLAND – Some Lands’ End customers did a double take upon seeing Portland Head Light in bold blue stripes.

No, the beloved lighthouse that was completed in 1791 in the administration of George Washington has not been repainted.

The digitally altered lighthouse on a flier inserted in a catalog prompted worried calls to the lighthouse museum and a mild protest from the town manager of Cape Elizabeth, where Portland Head Light is located.

Jeanne Gross, director of the Museum at Portland Head Light, said she received several phone calls from people annoyed that the Dodgeville, Wis., company decided to tinker with a local landmark.

“We’ve been white a long time,” Gross said. “I took one look at it and it was, ‘Wow, that’s ugly.'”

Cape Elizabeth Town Manager Michael McGovern didn’t let the matter pass without airing a grievance.

“We sent them a letter asking them that, if in the future they portray the light, they do it accurately,” he said.

The lighthouse, Maine’s first, is thought to be the most photographed lighthouse in the world. It draws more than 300,000 visitors a year. It inspired Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a Portland native.

Paula Greear, a Lands’ End spokeswoman, said she hoped Mainers would “grant us this small bit of artistic liberty.”

She said the company is trying to bring attention to the preservation of lighthouses, and will include some information on the issue in its 40th anniversary catalogs next year.

F. Joseph LePla, a founder of Parker LePla, a Seattle company that helps corporations build their brand identities, said Lands’ End probably won’t win any fans in Maine by adding the stripes.

“We all love our icons and people are understandably proud of an icon or else it wouldn’t be an icon,” he said.