Fort Williams Park
Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth
This post was originally published August 17, 2017.
With hundreds of years of fishing and sailing, Maine’s history lies on its rugged coast. In 65 different locations, lighthouses tower over the perilous rocks to guide sailors home. The oldest lighthouse in Maine, and perhaps the most photographed lighthouse in America as dubbed by the Smithsonian Magazine, is the Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth. Rising 80 feet in the air at the edge of Fort Williams, there’s not a time of the day where it isn’t a sight to behold.
Construction on the Portland Head Light began in 1790 and it was first lit on January 10, 1791 with 16 whale oil lamps. The small museum currently residing next to the lighthouse is in the former keeper’s quarters, which was built 100 years later. Despite good visibility, the Annie C. Maguire struck the rocks by the lighthouse on Christmas Eve in 1886. Pictures of the shipwreck, along with early lenses for the light and dioramas of the lighthouse’s construction and Fort Williams, are on display in the museum.
Next to the lighthouse is a cliff walk that winds along the coastline with the best views of passing lobster boats and from which most of the iconic photographs of the lighthouse were taken. Dogs panted as their owners walked them past me on the park’s pathways, while kids ran between the underground tunnels in the children’s garden and the picnic tables beneath the shade. A play area, complete with blow up houses and music, attracted a lot of happy children, while other families gathered on a small beach to wade in the water and tan under the beating sun.
Fort Williams Park encompasses 90 acres of scenic and historical attractions. Once comprised of 5 separate batteries and several other military support buildings, the fort was completed in the early 1900s. In the 1870s, the fort began as a sub-post of Fort Preble. The fort was manned during the Spanish-American War and both World Wars, before closing in 1962. Today, the fort has lost a lot of its structures, and what’s left is scattered across the park.
Nearby the beach is the Battery Keyes, which was one of the last gun batteries built at the fort in 1906. It also regulated sea traffic that entered the harbor during World War II, making it the only “pre-war” battery in Maine that was in use during that war. The battery is fully accessible to visitors, and after climbing to the top, I discovered a beaten trail that led down to the rocks, reaching out into the ocean.
Goddard Mansion, unlike Battery Keyes, is gated off at its entrances. Obviously home to a very wealthy man, the mansion sits in view of the water beyond the trees. The mansion was built before the fort for John Goddard, a man who had much success in the lumber industry before briefly serving as a volunteer army colonel at the beginning of the Civil War. By 1900, the mansion was acquired by the army and used as quarters for non-commissioned officers and sergeants. The inside deteriorated dramatically by the time the fort closed, and the rest was destroyed in a controlled fire during the 1980s.
Fort Williams has other pieces of the fort open to discovery, including Battery Blair, which exists on the opposite side of the lighthouse as Battery Keyes. Recently added arboretums and ponds add countless opportunity for ecological discovery as well. Fort Williams appeals to every component of my sense of adventure. With a rich history, acres of exploration, and a pretty view, it’s no wonder that Fort Williams is home to the most photographed lighthouse in the nation.