Accessibility: 
Geographic coordinates: 43° 33' 56" N 70° 12' 00" W
Nearest town: Cape Elizabeth. Located at the southern entrance to Casco Bay.
Established: 1828. Present lighthouse built: 1874. Automated: 1963.
Height of tower: 67 feet. Height of focal plane: 129 feet
Earlier optic: Second-order Fresnel lens. Present optic: VRB-25.
Characteristic: Four white flashes every 15 seconds.
Fog signal: Two blasts every 60 seconds.
To help mark the southern approach to Portland’s harbor, a stone day beacon was erected in 1811 at Cape Elizabeth, about eight miles southeast of Portland. The stone marker was torn down in 1827 to make way for a pair of 65-foot rubblestone lighthouses, built for $4,250. Elisha Jordan was appointed first keeper at a salary of $450 per year. The original towers were replaced in 1874 by 67-foot cast-iron towers 300 yards apart. Second-order Fresnel lenses were installed in both towers.
On January 28, 1885, a storm hit and increased in severity as the night progressed. Keeper Marcus Hanna sounded the fog whistle all night despite being ill with a cold and exhausted. Assistant keeper Hiram Staples relieved Hanna at 6:00 a.m. The keeper had to crawl through enormous snowdrifts back to the house. After Hanna was asleep, his wife looked out toward the ocean and saw a schooner aground near the fog signal building. The captain had already been swept away by the waves; only two crew members remained alive. The men had climbed to the rigging and were practically frozen alive in the bitter cold.
Hanna and Staples hurried to the edge of the water near the schooner. Hanna said later, “I felt a terrible responsibility thrust upon me, and I resolved to attempt the rescue at any hazard.” He tried a number of times to throw a line to the vessel but failed. Practically frozen, he waded waist-deep into the ocean and again threw a line to the schooner, this time hitting his target. The two crewmen were hauled safely to shore. After two days they had recovered enough to be taken to Portland by sled. Six months later, Hanna received a gold lifesaving medal for “heroism involving great peril to his life.”
During World War I, military personnel patrolled the grounds around the station. One of the assistant keepers at the time was James Anderson. His daughter, Edwina Davis, later recalled that the soldiers swept off a pond so the lighthouse families could ice skate. Edwina and the other lighthouse children walked four miles each way to school every day.
After some military use in World War II, the west tower (deactivated in 1924) passed into private ownership. The 1878 Victorian principal keeper’s house next to the east tower is now privately owned. The light in the east tower was automated in 1963, and the 1,800-pound second order Fresnel lens was removed in 1994. The lens is now on display at Cape Elizabeth Town Hall at 320 Ocean House Road.
In May 2000, Cape Elizabeth Light (the east tower) was licensed by the Coast Guard to the American Lighthouse Foundation (ALF). In the fall of 2008, ALF contracted Leslie Masonry to carry out repairs on the lighthouse’s base. The grounds immediately around the lighthouse are not open to the public. For a good view, take Two Lights Road to the southeast from Route 77 in Cape Elizabeth (at a sign for Two Lights State Park). At a fork, bear left and follow to the end of Two Lights Road. There is free parking, often crowded in summer. You can also walk out onto the granite ledges near the parking area for a view of both the east and west towers. Adjacent Two Lights State Park encompasses 41 acres of rocky headlands and includes picnic sites; call 207-799-5871 for information.
Fascinating Fact 
The deactivated west tower at Cape Elizabeth was owned for a time by actor Gary Merrill (Bette Davis’s ex-husband).
