Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse Shines a New Light After Nearly 70 Years

South Portland's iconic Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse has joined the modern era, swapping out a nearly 70-year-old incandescent beacon for a new LED lens that can be seen up to 10 nautical miles away.

The change was made a couple of weeks ago by the U.S. Coast Guard, which has been systematically upgrading navigational lights along the coast because LED technology is more energy efficient, requires less maintenance and lasts about 10 years.

The transition at Spring Point marks the fourth distinct light source to illuminate the lighthouse since it was first lit in 1897. The new lens preserves the lighthouse's signature rhythm: a flash every six seconds, accompanied by a fog signal that sounds every 10 seconds when visibility drops.

Art Greene, a volunteer tour guide and co-chair of the Spring Point Ledge Trust, knows the lighthouse's history inside and out. Wearing a name badge that identifies him as a "keeper" — a nod to the lighthouse's earlier days — Greene climbed into the lantern room on a foggy Tuesday morning to show off the installation.

"Everything that comes into Portland has to go by this lighthouse," Greene said, watching boats cut through the gray water below.

A tour boat passing north triggered the station's electronic fog signal, which hummed from its perch beside a 1,000-pound fog bell dating back to 1887. The signal typically continues for 40 minutes or longer, depending on how many vessels report reduced visibility.

A History Built on Shipwrecks

The cast-iron lighthouse, sometimes called a "spark plug" style for its shape, sits on a cement cylinder in Portland Harbor. It was constructed in response to a string of shipwrecks in the late 1800s caused by a rocky ledge that lies just 12 feet below the surface at low tide.

The original beacon used a fifth-order Fresnel lens with six bullseyes. A keeper and an assistant lived on-site full-time, tending the light from sunset to sunrise. Their nightly duties included cleaning soot from the lens, trimming wicks and winding the clockwork mechanism that rotated the light and struck the bell every two hours. The labor earned them the nickname "wickies."

The living quarters reflected the realities of life at sea. The damp first floor served as the galley, now restored with a wood stove, rocking chair, hutch, sink and rag rug. Up a narrow staircase, the head keeper's quarters feature a bed, desk, two closets and panoramic water views. The assistant wasn't as fortunate.

"The poor assistant above only had portholes," Greene noted.

A ladder cuts through the assistant's darker bedroom, providing direct access to the light room in case of emergency.

A Century of Technological Change

The original oil-powered lamp burned whale oil and kerosene until 1934, when it was replaced with an incandescent lamp paired with a barrel lens that magnified the beam — the same technology used in theatrical spotlights and airport runways. An underwater cable connected Spring Point to the nearby Bug Light, with both stations controlled from the same location.

In the 1960s, the light was fully automated and fitted with a plastic Lexan lens and six bulbs. Only one bulb operated at a time, and replacements waited until all six had burned out. That system, which relied on Coast Guard keepers, was finally retired when automation took over.

Greene, of Scarborough, handled some of the old incandescent bulbs, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. With the LED upgrade complete, the lighthouse is once again ready to guide mariners into Portland Harbor — just a little more efficiently than before.

From the top of the structure, Portland Head Light was barely visible through a thick band of fog. The red plastic panels on Spring Point's southern side glowed in the dim morning, a modern stand-in for the wooden range light that once helped ships find their way safely into port.