Choptank River Lighthouse

The Choptank River Light was constructed in 1870 and was a hexagonal cottage style screw pile lighthouse built by Francis A. Gibbons. The lighthouse sat offshore of Benoni Point in Oxford  out in the Choptank River and replaced the Choptank Lightship (LV 25) that was anchored there from 1870-1871 while the new lighthouse was built and put in service.   This lighthouse was similar in style to the York Spit Lighthouse in Virginia. The lantern contained a sixth-order Fresnel lens.

In 1881 ice piled up against the lighthouse cracking some of the pilings and tilting the structure. The damage was not significant and the lens was upgraded to a fifth-order Fresnel lens.

Records show that in winter of 1918 this lighthouse structure was destroyed by ice flows that are said to have climbed 30 feet around the lighthouse and knocked it off the pilings.  The 1918 newspaper photo is the only known photo of the original lighthouse.

The newly decommissioned Cherrystone Bar Lighthouse in Virginia was moved to the Choptank Lighthouse site and placed on top of a new screwpile foundation. The lighthouse was re-commissioned in 1921 and continued service until 1964 when the cottage was dismantled.  The Fourth Order Lens from the lighthouse is now at the Oxford Museum in Oxford, MD.  oxfordmuseummd.org

There is a USLHS lighthouse bell located on the grounds of the Oxford Town Hall near the museum.  They have no documentation of where it came from and neither the USLHS nor the CG kept records of where all the lighthouse bells went after they were removed from the lighthouses, but it can be surmised that it is from this lighthouse.  One interesting note, locals in Oxford refer to the Choptank Lighthouse as the Benoni Pt Light as it is just offshore from Benoni Pt in Oxford.

One notable fact is that this is the only lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay to have been replaced with an existing lighthouse from another location.

The City of Cambridge, Maryland, approved plans to build an exact replica of the lost Choptank River Lighthouse. After many years, the Maryland Legislature passed and Governor O’Malley signed legislation allowing this overwater structure. The replica was completed in the fall of 2012.

• Keeper Bio: Messick, Harold McKnett
• Choptank River Station
• Keeper Bio: Somers, James T.
• Keeper Bio: Austin, Julian Haywood
• Timeline: Choptank River Lighthouse
• Choptank River Lighthouse

Head Keepers: Philip J. Lecompte (1871 – 1874), William Quimby Price (1874 – 1881), Columbus Butler (1881 – 1882), William P. Frazier (1882 – 1883), George Culleton (1883 – 1884), J.E. Graves (1884), Henry F. Rollins (1884 – 1905), Patrick Reedy (1905), John E. Faulkner (1905 – at least 1918), Walter S. Hudgins (1920 – at least 1925), Carl G. Marsh (1926– 1941), James T. Somers (1940 – 1943), Harold Messick (1945 – 1964)

Assistant Keepers:  Alexander Woolford (1871 – 1872), Thomas T. Cole (1872 – 1873), William Quimby Price (1873 – 1874), Noah Tawes (1874 – 1875), William P. Frazier (1875 – 1876), Noah Tawes (1876 – 1879), Elhanan Jones (1879 – 1881), Charles L. Tarr (1881 – 1882), William M. Ensley (1882), William T. Hubbard (1882 – 1883), John E. Graves (1883 – 1884), George Smith (1884 – 1885), Charles H. Applegarth (1885 – 1888), Columbus J. Willey (1888 – 1889), Walter B. Daniel (1889), Levin H. Smith (1889 – 1893), Charles H. Applegarth (1893 – 1905), Charles T. Collison (1904), William T. Donald (1904 – 1905), George S. Hoffman (1905 – 1906), Littleton P. Timmons (1906), Charles T. Collison (1906 – 1907), James H. Sinclair (1907 – at least 1915), John M. Goodwin (– 1916), Samuel R. Tabor (1916 – ), Walter McDorman ( – 1917), Walter W. Thomas (1917), Edward M. Haman (1917 – 1918), Presley C. Bozman (1918 – ), Julian H. Austin (1921 – 1925), Carl G. Marsh (1925 – ), Edward Linton (at least 1926 – at least 1936), James M. Newcomb (1937 – 1938), Russell C. Cartwright (1938 – 1939)

(Updated 4/6/2019)

Choptank River Lighthouse Replica
Photo courtesy of Jill Jasut

The Choptank River Lighthouse Replica is located on the waterfront in Cambridge Maryland at the end of Pier A at Long Wharf Park. The lighthouse is open daily for self-guided tours of the lighthouse and the small museum it houses.