By Cassie Marceau

We see it every day, but not many people know the history of our own lighthouse, Spring Point Ledge Light. Here is a little history about the creation of our lighthouse here at SMCC. By the late 1800s, Portland Harbor was busy with schooners and steamships transporting coal, food and fish to and from the city. There was also traffic between Portland and other East Coast cities, with a growing number of travelers to the nearby islands, which were becoming more popular as vacation places.

By the time construction of Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse had been approved, seven steamship companies were carrying over 500,000 passengers past the rock ledge. At the same time, active military was also at Fort Preble in South Portland, Fort Scammel on House Island and Fort Gorges on Hog Island Ledge. Several big shipwrecks on the ledge finally made the steamship companies begin a campaign for a lighthouse to mark the ledge. The United States Lighthouse Board was finally persuaded in April 1891 to establish a fifth-order light at Spring Point Ledge. But it was not until March 1895 that an amount of $45,000 was approved by the Board to begin construction.

Thomas Dwyer of New York City received the contract from the Lighthouse Board to build a cast-iron caisson lighthouse of standard design. During this time, the Lighthouse Board was into cast-iron construction, and probably chose a New York City contractor because of his experience. Experience allowed him to submit the lowest bid, beating out any local firms which might have competed.

Before construction of the tower could begin, Dwyer was required to put together the three lower parts of the cylinder in the shop for inspection. Then, they were taken down, and the remaining part of the shell, along with gallery brackets, beams, floor, landing platforms, ladders and ladder railings, needed to be assembled and inspected. A chisel was used to number the plates according to a system created by the Board. Some of these numbers are still visible on the cylinder. Afterward it needed to be reassembled on site and put into position at the end of the ledge, where it would be filled with cement.
Construction started August of 1896, with divers putting together the cast-iron caisson plates underwater. The work went smoothly until a storm on Sept. 6 deformed many of the 1 1⁄8-inch iron plates already in place. The damage was around $5,000. Another setback was that the time lost getting new iron plates from the rolling mill in Pennsylvania, which took almost a month, made people think if it would be done by December. After the wait for supplies, the work continued in October.

Shortly after construction continued, Dwyer became part of a dispute with the Lighthouse Board and the 1st Lighthouse District Engineer over the cement used. While there is no indication that the cement used was actually flawed, Dwyer was not allowed to use materials that had not been tested and shown to be within specifications. He had filled the caisson with cement without first submitting it for quality-control testing. Dwyer was penalized $300 for doing it.

Even after all of this, construction of the lighthouse continued. By now, Dwyer’s contract had been extended to April 1, 1897, because of delays. On April 8, 1897, the Board accepted the lighthouse. The first keeper, William A. Lane, with 1st Assistant Keeper Harry Phillips, lit the lamp at Spring Point Ledge lighthouse for the first time on May 24, 1897. At first, it was painted red, but by October 1897, the Corps of Engineers recommended the color of the lighthouse be changed to its current black-and-white scheme, probably so the light would stand out from the nearby shoreline.

In early 1898, at the height of the Spanish-American War, Portland Harbor was mined and both Spring Point Ledge Light and Portland Head Light went dark for approximately three months. Both resumed operation on the evening of July 26. One of the oddest incidents occurred on Aug. 20, 1908, when the schooner Electric Flash ran into the lighthouse in broad daylight, destroying one of the station’s lifeboats. On May 1, 1934, an underwater electrical cable was routed from the shore at Fort Preble to the lighthouse. A second underwater cable was laid between Spring Point light and the nearby Portland Breakwater Light in Cushing’s Cove, and existed for many years; Portland Breakwater Light was monitored by the keepers at Spring Point light.

Damage by ice during the winter caused the circle of rocks around Spring Point in the 1930s with large granite blocks for protection. In 1951 the Corps of Engineers completed construction of a 50,000-ton granite breakwater at the Spring Point Ledge that connected the lighthouse with the shore at Fort Preble. Flatbed trailers were backed out onto the breakwater and the blocks were positioned by crane. The breakwater consists of 50,000 tons of granite and is 900 feet long.

The lighthouse was fully automated in the early 1960s, and the Coast Guard keepers were removed. Under the Maine Lights Program, the U.S. Coast Guard continues to operate the light and fog signal as an active aid to navigation. Today, Spring Point Ledge Light is automated, and marks the entrance into Portland Harbor. One of its lights is a 1-second flash every 6 seconds, visible for 1 mile. The automatic fog signal makes a 1-second blast every 10 seconds. If you want to know more about the lighthouse, there is a museum with a display in Bug Light Park.