CAPE ELIZABETH — Portland Head Light, one of the most popular lighthouses in the world, has been wrapped in scaffolding for a maintenance project that will obscure the Casco Bay landmark for several weeks.

The project was scheduled to avoid foul weather and the height of the tourist season, but the scaffolding, erected late last week, has already proven to be a major letdown for some visitors to the historic site.

“It’s so disappointing,” said Rose Ouellette of Port Sanilac, Michigan, who visited the lighthouse Monday with her husband, Richard.

The beacon’s facelift is being done by CertaPro Painters of Scarborough, which submitted the lowest qualified bid on the $65,000 project, said Greg Marles, Cape Elizabeth’s director of facilities and transportation.

Workers are filling cracks in stone masonry, replacing rotted wood and repainting the 92-foot-tall tower, the former keeper’s quarters and the gift shop, Marles said. The project started April 23 and was expected to be finished by June 17, but inclement weather in recent weeks forced the town to extend the deadline to the end of June, he said.

A worker pressure-washes a section near the top of the lighthouse, which is due for masonry repairs and painting.

The tourist season hasn’t really started yet, but Marles is still fielding questions about the project.

“I’ve had more people call to ask me what’s going on,” Marles said. “That’s what happens when you’re the most photographed lighthouse in the country.”

Jeanne Gross, director of a museum in the former keeper’s quarters, has heard many complaints, too.

“They say it’s their favorite lighthouse and they picked the wrong time to come,” Gross said. She suggests that they return in the near future, “when it will be in its pristine state once again.”

Built by the federal government in 1791, Portland Head Light is the oldest lighthouse in Maine. The buildings and property are owned and maintained by the town, along with the surrounding Fort Williams Park, but the automated light and fog signal are maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard. It’s a required stop on sightseeing tours, so it’s often photographed and captured in paintings.

A trolley arrives at scenic Portland Head Light. Work on the lighthouse and buildings is expected to take until late June.

Among the many people who enjoyed photographing and painting Portland Head Light was Rick Ouellette, the late son of Rose and Richard Ouellette, the Michigan couple who visited the lighthouse Monday.

Rick Ouellette was an automobile designer and artist who loved painting lighthouses, especially Portland Head Light, his mother said. He painted the iconic beacon several times before he died in 1997 at age 37, following a long and brave fight against AIDS and the discrimination that he and others experienced because of the disease, she said.

As Rick Ouellette waged his battle, Portland Head Light came to symbolize how he saw himself as an advocate and leader in the effort to win fair treatment of people who have AIDS, she said.

At their son’s request, the Ouellettes scattered his ashes over the rocks near the lighthouse on May 22, 1997, Rose Ouellette said. They return twice each year, spring and fall, to remember him and stand where he stood the last time he visited.

“I put my hand on the railing right where his hand had been,” said Rose Ouellette, 79, her voice shaking with emotion. “If it’s a cloudy day, it’s not so good. Today was perfect, except for the scaffolding hiding the lighthouse.”

Though Ouellette and her husband didn’t get to see the lighthouse Monday, she said she’s glad the town is taking care of a landmark that her son loved so much.

“That’s good,” she said. “It means a lot to us.”

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