"Governor Alexandar Spotswood first proposed building a lighthouse at Cape Henry in a message to the Virginia House of Burgesses on November 24, 1720. He suggested the province of Maryland should help pay part of the construction costs. For the next thirty-two years, various sessions of the House of Burgesses proposed building a lighthouse at Cape Henry with assistance from Maryland, but nothing was done. Finally, in 1752, the General Assembly passed an act to construct the lighthouse using revenue from an export tax on tobacco to pay for it. In 1759, the British government disallowed the law, claiming the tax would infringe on the tobacco trade.

In 1772, another act was passed and 6,000 pounds were appropriated for building the lighthouse. Construction began before the British could object but the American Revolution stopped further progress. During the war, a lookout station and signal fires were maintained to warn of approaching enemy ships. In 1789, the First Congress of the United States at their first session enacted a law to establish a lighthouse at Cape Henry near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. President George Washington approved the law on August 7, 1789. The lighthouse was the first federal building authorized by the United States government under the Constitution.