The light station sits on a headland at the entrance of the primary shipping channel into Portland Harbor, which is within Casco Bay in the Gulf of Maine.

The light station is automated, and the tower, beacon, and foghorn are maintained by the United States Coast Guard, while the former lighthouse keeper's house is a maritime museum within Fort Williams Park.

When the masons completed this task, they climbed to the top of the tower and realized that it would not be visible beyond the headlands to the south, so it was raised another 20 feet.

Following passage of their ninth law,[5] the first congress made an appropriation and authorized the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, to inform the mechanics that they could go on with the completion of the tower.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Portland Head light (sic) on April 24, 1973, reference number 73000121.