Right near Sunset Beach, past the crowds hunting for “Cape May diamonds” on the sand, a plain concrete tower rises above the dunes like it’s still waiting for a fight that never came. This is the WWII Lookout Tower in Cape May, officially known as Fire Control Tower No. 23, and it’s the last freestanding World War II watchtower left standing in New Jersey. You can climb it, and honestly, you should.
What Is the WWII Lookout Tower in Cape May?
The tower sits on Sunset Boulevard in Lower Township, inside what’s now Cape May Point State Park, and it was built for one job: watch the horizon for German ships. Built in 1942 as part of the Harbor Defense of the Delaware system, this is the last freestanding World War II Lookout Tower in New Jersey. It wasn’t decoration or a symbolic gesture, either. This concrete tower was built during World War II as part of the coastal defense network guarding the Delaware Bay and nearby shoreline.
What’s wild is how fast it went up. The WWII Tower at Sunset Beach in Cape May was built in June of 1942, and the process of building the concrete structure only took two and half days. That’s not a typo. The country was scrambling to protect its coastline, and the Army Corps of Engineers wasn’t messing around with a leisurely construction timeline.
Why Was It Built? The Real Fear Behind the Concrete
This wasn’t paranoia dreamed up for morale purposes. During World War II, these towers were used to triangulate the position of suspicious ships and submarines, and when enemy vessels were detected offshore, tower operators would help coastal units called “batteries” aim at the vessels. German U-boats really were operating close to the Eastern Seaboard, and a tower on the Cape May peninsula gave the military eyes on one of the busiest shipping lanes on the East Coast, the mouth of the Delaware Bay.
The Cape May tower wasn’t a one-off. Built in just weeks in 1942, the tower was one of 15 towers in Delaware and New Jersey used as observation posts to detect enemy vessels and direct the artillery fire from nearby coastal batteries. The whole network fell under a bigger operation. All 15 towers were part of the Harbor Defense of the Delaware system, and the primary fort of this coastal defense system was Fort Miles in Cape Henlopen near Lewes, Delaware, which at the time was a U.S. Army installation. Four of those towers stood specifically in Cape May County, and Fire Control Tower No. 23 is the only one still standing and open to visitors.
How Tall Is the Tower, and What Do You See From the Top?
These weren’t small buildings. Fire control towers are round-base concrete towers with flat observation decks that typically stand between four and five stories high. Cape May’s version reaches even higher. Once inside, a staircase takes you to the sixth floor spotting gallery where Observers will answer your questions. Those are docents, usually retired history buffs or veterans, stationed at the top to walk you through how the tower actually worked back when a soldier’s job was to squint at the horizon for hours at a time.
The climb isn’t brutal, but it isn’t nothing either. The tower requires a decent number of steps on several staircases to reach the top, though there are breaks every flight with various pictures and history, so visitors can climb slowly if they need to. Once you’re up top, the payoff is a sweeping view of the Cape May peninsula, the Atlantic, and the Delaware Bay all at once, along with the added bonus of catching a story from whoever’s staffing the gallery that day.
The Wall of Honor and Eternal Flame
The tower isn’t just a stairwell with a view. Inside, there’s a genuinely moving tribute tucked into the visit. The Wall of Honor pays tribute to local residents who served during World War II, with over 160 veterans’ photos on display there. Before you even reach the tower, the walk in sets the tone. Stop at the eternal flame sculpture outside on the boardwalk for quiet contemplation. It’s a small, unexpected moment of stillness before you climb into a building built for war.
From Decommissioned Ruin to National Landmark
Like a lot of coastal defense infrastructure, the tower went quiet almost as soon as the war ended. The fire control tower was decommissioned not long after the end of WWII. For decades it just sat there, weathering storms and salt air, until preservationists stepped in. In November 2003, Fire Control Tower No. 23 joined the National Register of Historic Places. More precisely, the tower was listed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places on May 29, 2003 and on the National Register on November 17, 2003.
Getting it open to the public took real restoration work. The award-winning restoration project included building spiral staircases in the Tower so the public could safely climb to the top, constructing a wooden walkway from the street to the Tower and a deck around its base to preserve the fragile dune environment, replacing missing windows and doors, and installing interpretive panels along the walkway and at every level in the Tower. That work paid off: the tower reopened to climbers in 2009, according to reporting on the site.
Ownership of the land is a little more layered than you’d expect. Like the Cape May Lighthouse, Fire Control Tower No. 23 is owned by the State of New Jersey, specifically the Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Parks, but since the state lacks the funds to restore and operate these historic structures, it has leased them to Cape May MAC (Museums + Arts + Culture). Cape May MAC is the same nonprofit responsible for keeping the Cape May Lighthouse and the Emlen Physick Estate open and cared for.
Visiting the Tower: Hours, Tickets, and What to Know
Because it’s mostly a warm-weather attraction, hours shift with the season, so it’s worth double-checking before you drive out. Recent listings put regular hours at 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily during peak season, though some seasonal schedules run shorter, closer to noon start times on weekdays. As for cost, admission has stayed pretty reasonable. The tower climb runs $8 for adults and $5 for kids, with military personnel admitted free, and there’s a slight discount if you buy your Cape May Lighthouse and tower tickets together.
A couple of practical notes worth knowing before you go. Visitors have noted the tower is a great activity for history buffs and families alike, but it is closed in the offseason and there is no restroom on-site aside from a portable stall in a nearby parking lot. If you’re not up for the stairs, you’re not totally out of luck, either — the lower floor of the Tower is accessible, and a small shop offers Tower mementos and bottled water, while staff have assembled a binder with photos and information for those who don’t climb.
What Else Is Nearby?
The tower sits inside Cape May Point State Park, a short walk from the beach, and it makes an easy pairing with the Cape May Lighthouse if you want to make a whole afternoon of climbing towers. It’s also just down the road from the rusting hull of a WWI-era concrete ship slowly sinking into the Delaware Bay — a completely separate oddity worth its own visit. Between the tower, the lighthouse, and the shipwreck, this stretch of Cape May Point packs an unusual amount of strange history into a very small patch of sand.
Most people come to Cape May for the Victorian gingerbread houses and the beach chairs. Fair enough — it’s beautiful. But climb those six flights of stairs at Fire Control Tower No. 23, and you get something different: a blunt, unpolished reminder that this same quiet coastline was once genuinely bracing for a war that could have landed right on its beaches.
NOTE TO THE ADVENTURER: This guide is meant to spark curiosity for what lies beyond the horizon — not to serve as a guarantee. Roads fall into disrepair, buildings are torn down and rebuilt, and properties change hands; 'tis your responsibility to do your own research before setting out. Always heed local and regional law, and always respect ground that isn't your own. Take every entry here as a suggestion, not a decree. This guide's contents were gathered with the aid of artificial intelligence, and like any scout, it will from time to time lead you astray. You assume all risk in following its counsel, and neither this blog nor its author is liable for any loss, injury, or misfortune that results.
