Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse

Before the older lighthouse at Thomas Point collapsed, the Lighthouse Board had planned to replace the light with a new screwpile structure to be located at the point of the dangerous shoal stretching into the Chesapeake Bay. Congress approved $20,000 for the new light on March 3, 1873. However, the Lighthouse Board reconsidered changing the design to a concrete-filled caisson after structural damage from dangerous ice to Love Point. After requesting additional funds, another $15,000 was approved in March 1875, but it was decided to continue with the original screwpile design.

In October 1874, the State of Maryland transferred five acres of land at the bottom of Chesapeake Bay at the end of Thomas Point Shoal to the Federal Government to build the new lighthouse. The white, hexagonal cottage is thirty-five feet in diameter, supported by seven 10-inch diameter piles; one center pile, and six perimeter piles. A walkway surrounds the first level and originally had four rooms: a kitchen, a sitting room, and two bedrooms. There is also a privy cantilevered over the water. Today, the first level consists of a mechanical room, bedroom, bathroom, dayroom, and kitchen. A center staircase leads to a smaller second level. The lantern room is accessed from the second level by a ship’s ladder. The 3-1/2 order Fresnel lens exhibited a red flashing light every twenty seconds, located forty-three feet above mean high tide. It was lit for the first time on November 20, 1975.

The winter of 1877 produced heavy ice floes, damaging the screwpile foundation, causing the Fresnel lens to be overturned and damaged. It was then replaced with a fourth-order Fresnel lens. To prevent this sort of damage in the future, a detached ice-breaker was located 90 feet north of the station. The ice-breaker consisted of “three wrought iron screwpiles connected by double channel iron beams, surmounted by heavy cast-iron caps, securely bolted together.” Riprap was also placed around the piles to provide extra protection from ice.

In 1939, the Commerce Department’s Lighthouse Service merged into the United States Coast Guard. By 1964, Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse was the last staffed offshore station on Chesapeake Bay. In 1972, The Coast Guard announced that they were going to consider decommissioning the lighthouse and dismantle it. The public rallied and was able to change the Coast Guard’s plans. Thomas Point Lighthouse was granted historic landmark status on January 23, 1975, and the Coast Guard remained at the station until it was automated on September 5, 1986.

On May 1, 2004, four partners took control of the lighthouse. Those four included: the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society, the Annapolis Maritime Museum, the City of Annapolis, and Anne Arundel County. The priority of the partnership is to focus on the historic preservation of the lighthouse and to use the site for public education & cultural activities. The city of Annapolis serves as the owner of the station, leasing it to the Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society, which would act as the managing organization. The Annapolis Maritime Museum serves as a shore departure point for tours, as well as displaying exhibits on the lighthouse. Anne Arundel County will offer advice on how to preserve the lighthouse. Included in the transfer documents from the U.S. Government, the U.S. Coast Guard would be guaranteed unrestricted access to the property and the right to use the lighthouse as an aid to navigation.

In August 2005, the first work crews arrived at Thomas Point Lighthouse to begin what would become a long and rewarding task of restoration. The four rooms on the first level were restored and decorated to reflect different time periods. The sitting room and kitchen are decorated with furniture to reflect the 1800s. Some furnishings include a potbelly stove, a waffle iron, and a flat iron for ironing clothes. The room that would serve as a workroom for the Coast Guard was restored to look as it did in the late 1970s. The fourth room on the first level is used as a storage room. The second floor, which used to serve as a dorm area for the Coast Guard was restored to display 19th-century keeper equipment.

Tours for the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse began in 2007 out of the Annapolis Maritime Museum and continue today. For more information, visit  https://www.thomaspointshoallighthouse.org/

Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse is the last screwpile structure left on its original site in the bay, and the last staffed lighthouse in Chesapeake Bay.

Sources:  Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board, various years;  Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, A Chesapeake Bay Icon, David Gendell, 2020; www.lighthousefriends.com

• Keeper Bio: Wingate, Henry Clay
• Keeper Bio: Gray, Paul B.
• Keeper Bio: Leikam Sr., George Henry
• Keeper Bio: Collison, David W.
• Timeline: Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse
• Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse

Head Keepers: Eugene Burchenal (1875 – 1880), Charles Miller (1880 – 1881), Julius Warmkessel (1881 – 1886), George F. Culleton (1886 – 1901), Daniel A. White (1901 – 1904), John B.T. Suit (1904 – 1908), Henry C. Wingate (1908), William R. Schoenfelder (1908 – 1911), Sheldon R. Van Houter (1911 – 1917), Arthur Midgett (1917), Harry O. Monsell (1917 – 1918), Oscar P. Olsen (1918 – 1921), James E. English (1921 – 1923), Crawford R. Austin (1923 – 1925), Paul B. Gray (1925 – 1926), Henry F. G. Bryant (1926 – 1940), Earl C. Harris (1940 – 1952), Arnold W. Doyle (1952 – 1953), Jesse B. Tolson (1953), Cecil Mason (1953 – 1954), George H. Leikam (1954 – 1960), John M. Beals (1960 – 1961), Reginald E. Grant (1961 – 1962), William G. Dennis (1962 – 1963), Harold E. Smith (1963 – 1964), Richard H. Sapp (1964 – 1965), George L. McGehee (1965 – 1967), Lem E. Wallace (1967 – 1968), George S. Hopkins (1968 – 1969), Alonzo O. Burrus, Jr. (1969 – at least 1971), John W. White (1973 – 1976), Richard Owens (1977 – at least 1978), Mark D. Brooke (at least 1979), John Clark (1980 – 1982), Frank Remaly (1985 – 1986).

First Assistant: George Sullivan (1875 – 1877), Charles Miller (1877 – 1880), Julius Warmkessel (1880 – 1881), Benjamin Atwood (1881), John B.T. Suit (1881 – 1883), George F. Culleton (1883), James L. Evans (1883), Henry L. League (1883 – 1884), Henry F. Rollins (1884), George Parkinson (1885), Jesse Jackson (1885), John Reynolds (1885 – 1886), Samuel F. Rawlings (1886), James A. Proctore (1886 – 1887), Charles A. Dillingham (1887 – 1889), John K. Schirgur (1889 – 1890), John B.T. Suit (1890 – 1891), Charles Robinson (1891 – 1897), Charles W. Hartmann (1898 – 1901), Henry Addicks (1901 – 1903), A. Eldridge White (1903), Edward Jansen (1903 – 1904), Peter S. Earle (1904 – 1905), Charles Robinson (1905), Henry C. Wingate (1905 – 1907), Charles A. Larsen (1907), Homer T. Austin (1907 – 1908), John R. Kerly (1908), Devaney F. Jennette (1908 – 1909), John T. Tolson (1909), Malachi D. Swain (1909), Millard F. Cantler (1909), Samuel W. Norton (1909), Malachi D. Swain (1909 – 1910), John L. Ennis (1910 – 1915), John E. Stubbs (1915), David W. Collison (1915 – 1916), Reddin C. Farrow (1916 – 1917), Henry L. Matthews (1917), William E. Quidley (1917 – 1919), Bertie E. Ford (1919 – 1924), Edward B. Austin (1923), Earl C. Harris (1924 – 1940), Raymond C. Peters (1954 – 1956).

Second Assistant: Charles Miller (1875 – 1877), George A. Miller (1877 – 1879), John Maley (1879), Julius Warmkessel (1879 – 1880), John W. Parrish (1880 – 1881), John B.T. Suit (1881), Charles G. Roberts (1881), George F. Culleton (1881 – 1883).

U.S. Coast Guard: Theodore R. Willis (at least 1948 – 1949), Kenneth L. Weir (1948 – 1951), R.E. Steiger (1948), Paul B. Wilt (1949), Kertley M. Webster (1949 – 1950), Stanley T. Mansell (1950 – 1951), Thomas Crow (1950 – 1951), M.T. Wall (1950), Sal Tarantino (1951 – 1952), James O. Jacobs (1951 – 1952), Jessie C. Maddox (1952), Walter C. DeGroot (1952 – 1954), Gilbert M. Thomason (1952 – 1954), George W. Montgomery (1952 – 1954), Paul C. Friess (1954), Thomas L. Wallace (1954 – 1956), Raymond J. Wojcik (1954 – 1955), Joseph C. Gollattscheck (1955 – at least 1957), Ronald G. Trapani (1956), Robert V. Dors (1956 – at least 1957), Berry T. Edgar (at least 1960 – 1961), Walter L. Gruber (at least 1960 – 1961), Henry T. McClung (at least 1960 – 1962), Irvin L. Sentz (1961 – 1962), Beverly Funckhouser (1961), George W. Herpel (1961 – 1962), Robert G. Sigler (1962), Thomas J. Salek (1962 – ), Hastle E. Baber (1963 – ), Robert G. Roehm (1963 – ), William H. Donoway (at least 1963), Carl E. Wolcott (at least 1963), Elmer J. Goodman (1964 – ), Jack E. Jones ( – 1964), R.M. Sands (at least 1964), David A. Spatafora (at least 1964), James W. Tonkin (at least 1964), Michael R. Bullis (at least 1964 – 1965), Joseph Zwierzynski, Jr. ( – 1965), John E. Blick ( – 1965), Alan C. Haynes ( – 1965), Paul T. Outland (1965 – 1966), Richard E. Conley (1965 – 1966), Benson J. Ray III (1965 – 1968), Paul D. Van’t Hof (1966), William H. Watson (1966 – ), James T. Nicholson (1966 – ), Edgar W. Candler (at least 1967), Ronald E. Grove (at least 1967), Paul D. Lemon (at least 1967), William J. Tunis (at least 1967), Herman S. Pritchard (at least 1967), Thomas B. Griffiths (at least 1967), Michael P. Kissell (at least 1967), Robert K. Szillage (at least 1968 – 1969), W.J. Mitchell ( – 1968), William N. Fahey (at least 1968 – 1969), J.D. Hallisey ( – 1968), Howard H. Barbee (1969), Leroy A. Kehring (1969 – 1970), John I. Evans (1969 – at least 1971), Steve F. Swint (1970), Roger E. Hollenbeck (1970), Danny E. Mordecai (1970 – at least 1971), Harry F. Leppo (1970), Richard W. Ferguson (1970), Philip Hanna III (at least 1972), Cliff Lathrop (at least 1974), Ernest L. Taylor (at least 1974), Paul G. Wallace (at least 1974), Mario T. Picinich (at least 1975 – 1976), Thomas Albert (1976 – 1977), Amos Sharpe (at least 1976), Richard Whorley (1977 – at least 1979), Mike Wolf (at least 1978), Ed Foster (at least 1978), Willie C. Whittaker (1979 – 1980), Joseph Brosius (1980), Willie Ziegler (1980 – at least 1981), Scott Kaufman (1981 – at least 1982), Michael A. Ashley (1982 – 1983), Leo Rios (at least 1983), James Rea (at least 1985), Steven Johnson (at least 1985), Otis Williams ( – 1986), Scott N. Metzbower (at least 1985 – 1986), Mike Hurley ( – 1986), Dennis Schuman ( – 1986), Dennis McIntyre ( – 1986), Erich Riess (1986).

Directions:

Thomas Point is another light that you can not get to with most cars.  It is located about 1.25 miles off shore.  You can see the light from Thomas Point State Park.

From the Washington Beltway, Interstate 95, 495, go east on US Route 50 to exit 22, just before Annapolis.  Exit south on State Route 665, Aris T Allen Blvd.  This road becomes Forest drive.  Go about 2.5 miles until you come to Arundel On the Bay Road.  There is a sign for the Coast Guard Station on the right at this road.  Turn right onto Arundel On the Bay Road.  Follow Arundel On the Bay Road (also called Thomas Point Road) for about 1.4 miles until the road turns into Thomas Point Road.  Continue on Thomas Point Road to the end of the road.  This is only about a half mile.  At the end of the road is Thomas Point State Park.  The gate opens at 8:00 am.  Drive to the end of the road in the park and the lighthouse can be seen 1.25 miles due east.