COVE POINT LIGHTHOUSE-MARYLAND

                                                                                                                  Cove Point Light Station in 1928
                                                                                                            Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

This light was built in 1828 by John Donahoo, who erected a 36 foot brick conical tower along the plan that he has used at several other sites in the Bay. In 1825 Congress had allocated funds to build a light at Cedar Point, four miles south at the mouth of the Patuxent River, but further consideration led to a decision to mark Cove Point and the shoal which jutted into the bay. A new appropriation in 1828 allowed construction of the light and the keepers house in the same year. James Somerville was the first keeper of the light, which first shown in December 1828. The original Argand lamps were replaced in 1855 with a fifth-order Fresnel lens; this in turn was upgraded to a fourth-order lens in 1857. A fog bell added in 1837 was moved several times and was mounted on both wood and iron frames before ending up on the roof of a wooden shed built in 1902 to house a fog horn.The foghorn equipment was moved in 1950 to a separate brick building, but the fog bell remains on the shed. Erosion was a significant problem, but was eventually brought under control through a seawall initially constructed in 1892 and upgraded in 1913 and 1993. The keeper's house was enlarged in 1881 when it was converted to a duplex with housing for two keepers and their families, and again in 1925 when inside kitchens were installed. In 1950 a separate small house was built as a home to a third keeper and his family. The lighthouse was completely automated in 1986. Cove Point remains an active aid to navigation and is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay.
Focal Height: 45' (14 m), Range: 12 nautical miles (22 km), Characteristic: flashing white-10sec

POINT LOOKOUT LIGHTHOUSE-POINT LOOKOUT STATE PARK, MARYLAND

                                                                                                         Point Lookout Lighthouse with windmill in 1930
                                                                                                            Photograph courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard

On May 3, 1825, the Federal Government decided that a light was needed at Point Lookout to warn ships of the shoals and to mark the entrance to the Potomac River, and appropriated $1,800 for the project. The owner, Jenifer Taylor refused the offer of $500 for the land, though he apparently offered to accept this price if he was named keeper. The purchase was delayed and eventually a county commission set a value of $1,150. Because of the cost overruns for the land purchase, Congress appropriated $4,500 on May 23, 1828, and awarded a contract on July 22, 1830 to John Donahoo for $3,050. Donahoo built a story-and-a-half house which was first lit on September 20, 1830 by keeper James Davis. Davis died a few months after taking the oath of office and his daughter, Ann Davis, kept the light until 1847.
In 1854 the light was upgraded with a fourth-order Fresnel lens. The Civil War completely transformed the point. First, the Hammond General Hospital was built in 1862 to care for the Union wounded. In 1863, Confederate prisoners began to be held at the hospital, and soon Camp Hoffman, a vast prison camp was built, eventually holding 20,000 prisoners, of whom more than 3,000 died to the harsh conditions, limited food rations and poor shelter from the elements.
A fog bell tower was added in 1873. In 1883, the lighthouse was raised to two full stories with a summer kitchen and additional bedroom added at the southwest corner. Also in 1883, a buoy repair depot was built on the south side of the light; in 1884, a coal storage shed was built to the south of the buoy repair depot. The new structures obscured the fog bell, which was then replaced with a new fog bell on the east end of the coal storage shed. In 1927, the lighthouse was converted to a duplex, more than doubling the size of the building. The duplex allowed for a keeper and assistant keeper to live on-site and still have some privacy.
The light was served by civilian and Coast Guard Keepers. In 1939, the United States Coast Guard took over control of all U.S. lighthouses, and the keepers were pressured, but not required, to join the Coast Guard. In 1951, The United States Navy began buying property around the light. On January 11, 1966, the light was deactivated and the structures were turned over to the Navy.
The fog bell tower was moved to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in 1968. Throughout the 1960s the State of Maryland purchased land north of the lighthouse and carved out Point Lookout State Park. In 2006, the light was turned over to Maryland as a part of a land-swap deal.
With the history of the approximate 4,000 soldiers who died at the camp, and their remains being interred near the lighthouse grounds, and all the the trauma and death associated with the prison camp, it may be responsible for the large number of strange, paranormal events that have been reported by visitors to the lighthouse. Point Lookout is, in fact, the only light station on the Chesapeake that has been subject to the services of paranormal psychologists. These investigators were able to record twenty-four distinct voices engaged in speaking and singing in various parts of the lighthouse. One voice remarked, “fire if they get too close to you,” which is thought to be the words of a Union guard in the prison camp. A happier ghost is believed to be that of former keeper Ann Davis, who said the words “my home.” The figure of Ann Davis has also reportedly been seen standing at the head of the lighthouse’s stairs clothed in a blue skirt and a white blouse.

Height: 41' (12 m), original height: 24' (7.3 m)

PINEY POINT LIGHTHOUSE-PINEY POINT, MARYLAND

                                                                                                                      Piney Point Lighthouse in 1912
                                                                                                             Photograph courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard

Located fourteen miles up the Potomac River from the Chesapeake Bay, Piney Point Lighthouse is situated on the Maryland shore of the river. A lightship had been stationed in the area since 1821 to mark hazardous shoals at Piney Point and at Ragged Point on the opposite shore. In 1835, Congress set aside $5,000 for construction of a land-based beacon to replace the lightship, and the contract was awarded to the prolific lighthouse builder John Donahoo. Piney Point Lighthouse was the tenth of twelve he would complete in his lifetime. 
First lit in September 1836, Piney Point Lighthouse is much like most of Donahoo’s other towers – a thick and blocky structure in the form of a truncated cone. The tower has a thirteen-foot diameter at the base, where its walls are four-feet thick, and tapers to a seven-foot diameter at the top, where the walls are only eighteen inches thick. The door to the structure is just five feet high, and is set in a threshold that is a single piece of stone. Donahoo’s works were cheap and sturdy, allowing him to make low bids that were to the liking of the frugal Fifth Auditor of the Treasury, Stephen Pleasanton. Since Pleasanton held great sway over lighthouse construction for three decades, John Donahoo’s building style was repeatedly endorsed.
Twenty-six-foot-tall Piney Point originally employed ten lamps, set in spherical reflectors, to produce a fixed white light. In addition to the tower, Donahoo built a three-room, one-story keeper’s dwelling topped by an A-line roof. The small twenty by thirty-foot house contained a dining room, parlor, fireplace, and cellar, and had an attached ten by twelve-foot kitchen. In 1884, a second story was added to the structure, greatly improving the keeper’s comfort level.
On June 5, 1855, the old lighting apparatus of ten oil lamps and fifteen-inch reflectors was replaced by a more efficient fifth-order Fresnel lens, increasing the lighthouse’s visibility from ten to eleven miles. In March 1880, a thirty-foot, wooden fog bell tower, built in the Victorian style, was added to the station to aid mariners in low-visibility conditions. Painted white, this tower stood fifteen feet west of the lighthouse and possessed a mechanical striker that tolled the bell every twenty seconds during thick and foggy weather. A  long reed horn replaced the bell in 1936. The old bell tower was torn down after being heavily damaged by Hurricane Hazel in 1954.
The keeper’s job was ultimately eliminated with the onset of automation, and Piney Point Light Station was decommissioned completely in 1964. For many years the Coast Guard kept the property as housing for its personnel, but in 1980 it deeded the grounds to St. Mary’s County. The lighthouse and other buildings were given to the Department of Recreation and Parks, and this organization allowed the St. Clement’s Island-Potomac River Museum to take over operation of the site. Though the light is no longer an aid to navigation, the museum sometimes activates the light at night.

CRAIGHILL CHANNEL UPPER FRONT LIGHTHOUSE-FORT HOWARD, MARYLAND

CRAIGHILL CHANNEL LOWER REAR LIGHTHOUSE-EDGEMERE, MARYLAND

Height: 105' (32 m), Range: 16 Nautical Miles (30 km), Characteristic: Fixed white

CONCORD POINT LIGHTHOUSE-HAVRE DE GRACE, MARYLAND

Concord Point Lighthouse at Havre de Grace, Maryland was established to warn seafaring vessels away from the treacherous currents and shoals near the mouth of the Susquehanna River. Master builder John Donahoo was responsible for the construction of the lighthouse in his hometown, where he also served multiple terms as a Havre de Grace town commissioner. At the time of its decommissioning in 1975, Concord Point Lighthouse had the distinction of being the oldest beacon in continuous use in Maryland. The 484-square-foot lighthouse tract was deeded to the federal government by the town commissioners in 1826, and on May 18 of that year Congress provided $2,500 for the lighthouse and added $1,500 to this amount on March 2, 1827. Donahoo built the thirtysix-foot-tall lighthouse and the associated keeper’s dwelling, which was located 200 feet away, between May and November of 1827. The lighthouse, a truncated conical tower topped by a lantern and deck, was built with Port Deposit granite, barged down the Susquehanna River. The tower’s walls are three feet, three inches thick at the base, where the inside diameter of the tower is eleven feet, and taper to a thickness of one-and-a-half-feet at the lantern room. A tongue and groove mahogany door, identical to one used at Pooles Island light, originally guarded the entranceway, while a spiral staircase made of triangular granite steps leads to a quarter-circular stone landing, from which the lantern may be accessed by climbing a slightly angled iron ship’s ladder. The lantern floor is composed of radially cut stone pieces, which are held in place by flat iron keys. The storm panels in the lantern are secured by iron mullions cast in an unusual fin shape. The original illuminating apparatus consisted of multiple lamps, each with its own sixteen-inch reflector. In 1854, a sixth-order Fresnel lens was installed. This was later upgraded to a fifth-order Fresnel lens. The lighthouse was automated in 1920.
Concord Point Lighthouse was decommissioned in 1975, and shortly thereafter the Fresnel lens mysteriously disappeared from the tower. The tower was restored in 1981, and in 1983 a fifth-order Fresnel lens, on loan from the Coast Guard, was mounted in the lantern room
Concord Point Lighthouse is currently listed as a private aid to navigation, exhibiting a light from its fifth-order Fresnel lens. Some insist that the present lens, on loan from the Coast Guard and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, is in fact the original one that disappeared in 1975.

TURKEY POINT LIGHTHOUSE-ELK NECK STATE PARK, MARYLAND

                                                                                                                Turkey Point Lighthouse 1915-1920
                                                                                                          Photograph courtesy of  U.S. Coast Guard

The Turkey Point Lighthouse is a historic lighthouse at the head of Chesapeake Bay. Although it is only a 35-foot (11 m) tower, the 100-foot height of the bluffs on which it stands makes it the third highest light off the water in the bay.

Congress appropriated $5,000 for this light in early 1833, which was built by John Donahoo and completed in July 1833. He followed essentially the same plan as he had used for the Concord Point Lighthouse. The light originally used eleven wicks and reflectors, but in 1855 a fourth-order Fresnel lens with a single lamp was substituted, with the lantern upgraded in 1867 to fit the news lens better. The lighting arrangements were upgraded several times over the years, with electrification coming in 1942. Its automation in 1947 brought the retirement of Fannie Salter, the last woman lighthouse keeper in the United States.

Along with the tower, Donahoo built a keeper's house. Originally a single story, it was raised to two stories in 1889. The site also housed an unusual fog bell enclosure, built in 1888. Due to the height of the bluff, it was decided to put the bell as low to the ground as possible. To accommodate the weight for the ringing mechanism, a thirty-foot well was dug and the enclosure placed over them. During World War II a watchtower was placed atop the bell enclosure.  In 1972 the house had greatly decayed and was torn down. In 2000 the light was decommissioned and leased to Turkey Point Light Station (TPLS) Inc., a non-profit organization which has taken over maintenance of the structure; the group reactivated the light as a private aid to navigation in 2002.

LISTON REAR RANGE LIGHTHOUSE-DELAWARE

                                                                                                                 Liston Rear Range Lighthouse in 1933
                                                                                                              Photograph Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard

Liston Rear Range Lighthouse is Delaware’s tallest lighthouse and also the one farthest from the water, standing three miles inland from the riverside location of its companion front range light. Vessels bound upstream pick up the piercing lights of Liston Range, the longest navigable range in the United States, near Ship John Shoal Lighthouse, which is located roughly seventeen miles from the front light. After following Liston Range from Delaware Bay to the mouth of Delaware River, vessels will alternately encounter red and green range lights as they continue upriver. Due to the length of the channel it covers, Liston Range must exhibit white lights, unlike the colored lights of the other range lights on the river. Liston Rear Range Lighthouse is the only range light on Delaware River to retain its powerful Fresnel lens; all others have been removed in favor of modern optics that are easier to service and maintain.
Liston Rear Range Lighthouse had elsewhere its beginnings. Built by Kellogg Bridge Company of Buffalo, New York, the wrought iron tower originally served as Port Penn Rear Range Lighthouse. The 120-foot tower was first lit on April 2, 1877 and helped guide ships from Ship John Shoal to Dan Baker Buoy until the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers realigned the shipping channel served by Port Penn Range. On October 25, 1904, temporary lights were established on Liston Range to serve the newly created channel, and Port Penn Range was discontinued. Since the expense of relocating the tower from Port Penn Rear Range Station to Liston Rear Range Station was estimated to be one-third the cost of a new tower, the Lighthouse Board contracted John L. Grim of Philadelphia to make the move.The skeleton iron tower at the abandoned Port Penn rear light-station was moved to the present site and re-erected by contract on a new foundation. On May 15, 1906, the light was removed from the temporary lantern post and placed in the lantern of the re-erected tower. A second order range lens with lamps was ordered. The station was electrified sometime in the 1930s, allowing the station to be fully automated and the dwellings to be sold. Only the small parcel of land around the base of the tower was retained by the government. On May 3, 2004, the Delaware River & Bay Lighthouse Foundation signed a thirty-year lease on Liston Rear Range Lighthouse with the Coast Guard and assumed responsibility for the maintenance and preservation of the historic tower.

LISTON FRONT RANGE LIGHT-DELAWARE

                                                                                                                 Liston Front Range Lighthouse in 1913
                                                                                                                 Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

REEDY ISLAND REAR RANGE LIGHTHOUSE-DELAWARE

                                                                                                                      Reedy Island Lighthouse
                                                                                                          Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard