Cove Point Light

Last updated
Cove Point Light
COVE POINT LIGHT 1 72 500.jpg
1991
Cove Point Light
Locationon Cove Point just south of Calvert Cliffs State Park
Coordinates 38°23′10.5″N76°22′54.3″W / 38.386250°N 76.381750°W / 38.386250; -76.381750 Coordinates: 38°23′10.5″N76°22′54.3″W / 38.386250°N 76.381750°W / 38.386250; -76.381750
Tower
Constructed1828
Construction brick
Automated1986
Height16 m (52 ft)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Shapeconical tower
Markingswhite  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
HeritageNational Register of Historic Places listed place  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Light
First lit1828  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Focal height45 feet (14 m)
Lensfourth-order Fresnel lens
Range12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi)
Characteristic Flashing white, 10 sec.
Cove Point Lighthouse
Area4 acres (1.6 ha)
NRHP reference No. 73000907 [1]
Added to NRHPApril 11, 1973

The Cove Point Light is a lighthouse located on the west side of Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County, Maryland. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

History

This light was built in 1828 by John Donahoo, who erected a brick conical tower along the plan he had 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 keeper's house in the same year. [5]

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 towers before ending up on the roof of a wooden shed built in 1902 to house a foghorn. 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. [6]

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 home to a third keeper and his family.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 as Cove Point Lighthouse. The keepers remained until 1986 when the light was finally automated. The light was in good condition, with much equipment remaining from prior years, when it was turned over to Calvert County in 2000. Since then it has been administered by the Calvert Marine Museum, which allows access to the light and grounds in the summer months.

Cove Point remains an active aid to navigation and is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay.

Notes

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. Archived from the original on June 1, 2007.
  2. "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Maryland" (PDF). United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.
  3. Light List, Volume II, Atlantic Coast, Shrewsbury River, New Jersey to Little River, South Carolina (PDF). Light List. United States Coast Guard. 2012. p. 72.
  4. Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of the United States: Maryland". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  5. Vera Foster Rollo. Maryland Today A Geography. p. 8.
  6. Nancy Miller (September 1972). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Cove Point Light" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved 2016-01-01.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seven Foot Knoll Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

The Seven Foot Knoll Light was built in 1855 and is the oldest screw-pile lighthouse in Maryland. It was located atop Seven Foot Knoll in the Chesapeake Bay until it was replaced by a modern navigational aid and relocated to Baltimore's Inner Harbor as a museum exhibit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Point Shoal Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

The Thomas Point Shoal Light, also known as Thomas Point Shoal Light Station, is a historic lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay on the east coast of the United States, and the most recognized lighthouse in Maryland. It is the only screw-pile lighthouse in the bay which stands at its original site. The current structure is a 1½ story hexagonal wooden cottage, equipped with a foghorn as well as the light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Brother Island Light</span> Lighthouse in California, United States

East Brother Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse located on East Brother Island in San Rafael Bay, near the tip of Point San Pablo in Richmond, California. It marks the entrance to San Pablo Bay from San Francisco Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Point No Point Light (Maryland)</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

Point No Point Light, located in the Chesapeake Bay off the eponymous point several miles north of the mouth of the Potomac River, was constructed as part of a program to add lighted navigational aids in a thirty-mile stretch of the bay between Cove and Smith Points.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcatraz Island Lighthouse</span> Lighthouse in the San Francisco Bay, California

Alcatraz Island Lighthouse is a lighthouse—the first one built on the U.S. West Coast—located on Alcatraz Island in California's San Francisco Bay. It is located at the southern end of the island near the entrance to the prison. The first light house on the island was completed in 1854, and served the bay during its time as a Citadel and military prison. It was replaced by a taller concrete tower built in 1909 to the south of the original one which was demolished after it was damaged due to earthquake in 1906. The automation of the lighthouse with a modern beacon took place in 1963, the year Alcatraz closed as the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. It is the oldest light station on the island with a modern beacon and is part of the museum on the island. Although when viewed from afar it easily looks the tallest structure on Alcatraz, it is actually shorter than the Alcatraz Water Tower, but as it lies on higher ground it looks much taller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Point Vicente Light</span> Lighthouse in California, United States

Point Vicente Lighthouse is a lighthouse in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, United States, north of Los Angeles Harbor. It is 67 feet (20 m) tall and stands on a cliff with a height of 130 feet (40 m). It is between Point Loma Lighthouse to the south and Point Conception Lighthouse to the north. The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The lighthouse is owned by the United States federal government and is managed by the United States Coast Guard. It is not usually open to the public, but the Coast Guard Auxiliary run tours once per month and it is used annually for the city's "Whale of a Day" festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Concord Point Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

Concord Point Light is a 36-foot (11 m) lighthouse in Havre de Grace, Maryland, United States, overlooking the point where the Susquehanna River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, an area of increasing navigational traffic when it was constructed in 1827. It is the northernmost lighthouse and the second-oldest tower lighthouse still standing on the bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craighill Channel Lower Range Front Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

The Craighill Channel Lower Range Front Light, named for William Price Craighill, was the first caisson lighthouse built in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, USA. First lit in 1873, the range marks the first leg of the maintained Craighill Channel from the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Patapsco River into the Baltimore harbor and works in conjunction with the Craighill Channel Lower Range Rear Light. It has been owned by non-profit organization Historical Place Preservation, Inc. since 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandy Point Shoal Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

Sandy Point Shoal Light is a brick three story lighthouse on a caisson foundation that was erected in 1883. It lies about 0.6 mi (0.97 km) off Sandy Point, north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, from whose westbound span it is readily visible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Point Lookout Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

Point Lookout Light is a lighthouse that marks the entrance to the Potomac River at the southernmost tip of Maryland's western shore of the Chesapeake Bay, south of the town of Scotland in Saint Mary's County, Maryland, USA. It is known for its association with ghost stories and has been the subject of paranormal investigations. The lighthouse is located in Point Lookout State Park. It is not open to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turkey Point Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

The Turkey Point Light is a historic lighthouse at the head of the Chesapeake Bay. Although only a 35-foot (11 m) tower, the 100-foot (30 m) height of the bluffs on which it stands makes it the third highest light off the water in the bay. It is also known for the large number of women who served as lightkeeper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Washington Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

Fort Washington Light is an unusual lighthouse located on the banks of the Potomac River on the grounds of its namesake fort. Although there has been a lighthouse on this location since 1857, the current light was converted from a fog bell tower in 1901.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solomons Lump Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

Solomons Lump Light is a lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay, the abbreviated remains of a caisson light built in 1895. That structure replaced a screw-pile light built on the same spot in 1875, which in turn superseded the Fog Point Light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fishing Battery Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

Fishing Battery Light was the last lighthouse constructed in Maryland by John Donahoo. While still standing, it has been supplanted by a steel tower which stands adjacent to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooper Island Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

The Hooper Island Light is a lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay, west of Middle Hooper Island in Maryland. The lighthouse is located in a U.S. Navy controlled "danger area" and because of that, overnight occupation of the structure is prohibited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drum Point Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

Drum Point Light is one of four surviving Chesapeake Bay screw-pile lighthouses. Originally located off Drum Point at the mouth of the Patuxent River, it is now an exhibit at the Calvert Marine Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hooper Strait Light</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

Hooper Strait Light is one of four surviving Chesapeake Bay screw-pile lighthouses in the U.S. state of Maryland. Originally located in Hooper Strait, between Hooper and Bloodsworth Islands in Dorchester County and at the entrance to Tangier Sound, it is now an exhibit at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedar Point Light (Maryland)</span> Lighthouse in Maryland, United States

The Cedar Point Light was the last house-type lighthouse built in the Chesapeake Bay. An early victim of shoreline erosion, the cupola and gables are preserved at museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Point Comfort Light</span> Lighthouse in Virginia, United States

Old Point Comfort Light is a lighthouse located on the grounds of Fort Monroe in the Virginia portion of the Chesapeake Bay. It is the second oldest light in the bay and the oldest still in use. The lighthouse is owned and maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annisquam Harbor Light</span> Lighthouse

Annisquam Harbor Light Station is a historic lighthouse on Wigwam Point in the Annisquam neighborhood of Gloucester, Massachusetts. It can be viewed from nearby Wingaersheek Beach, Gloucester. It lies on the Annisquam River and is one of the four oldest lighthouses to surround the Gloucester peninsula as well as; Eastern Point Light, Ten Pound Island Light, and Thacher Island Light.

References

1928 Cove Point Light USCG 3.jpg
1928

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Cove Point Light at Wikimedia Commons