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.