Cape Elizabeth Light towers 65 feet above one of the most beautiful parts of Maine’s coast. Samuel Adams Drake wrote of an 1891 visit:
“The outlook opened to us here, whether of sea or shore, of windy cape or tumbling surf, is uncommonly fine, if only one could get rid of the train of ideas that these roaring reefs on one hand, and the life-saving station on the other . . . so infallibly suggest. Even in the season of calm seas and serene skies these gray little cabins by the sea constantly remind us of lurking dangers.”
Indeed, Cape Elizabeth Light has seen its share of shipwrecks in the course of nearly 200 years. A 50-foot day beacon was built on the site in 1811, and the first of what would become a legendary pair of lighthouses took the beacon’s place in 1828. The second was built so that approaching mariners could line the two lights up, setting them on their correct course.
Edward Hopper famously executed a series of paintings of Cape Elizabeth Light in the 1920s, one of which appeared on a 1970 postage stamp commemorating Maine’s 150th anniversary.
Travel Tips
Neither the lighthouse nor its grounds are open to the public, but there are views of the lighthouse at the end of Two Lights Road.
Travel Information
Cape Elizabeth Light
Off Two Lights Road
Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107
207.594.4174
For more, visit: www.lighthousefoundation.org/lighthouses/cape-elizabeth-light/