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)
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