1834: A request is made to construct a lighthouse on Love Point, Maryland at a price of $5,500 on June 30.
1837: The request to build a lighthouse on Love Point is rejected. Captain Claxton of the Navy Commissioners Office writes in a letter: “it would be totally useless for vessels passing up or down the bay and is not necessary for the limited number of craft trading in Chester river.”
1854: Congress appropriates $15,000 on August 3, to construct a lighthouse on Love Point, or the extremity of the shoal at the mouth of the Chester River, Maryland.
1857: The lighthouse to be built on Love Point has not started. Once again, it is expressed that a light at this location would be of little benefit to navigation. It is recommended that a light built on Swan Point would be more useful.
1868: Several signed petitions for lights to be constructed at Bloody Point and Love Point are forwarded to the Lighthouse Board.
1869: Estimates for the construction of lights at Bloody Point and Love Point are submitted. Construction of the lights are recommended in the last annual report, but the necessary appropriations were not made by Congress.
1870: Congress appropriates $15,000 for a second time to construct a screwpile lighthouse on Love Point. The lighthouse will stand in 10-feet of water on the shoal at the mouth of the Chester River, a little over a mile from the north end of Kent Island.
1872: A hexagonal screwpile white wooden cottage lighthouse built on ten piles with an iron foundation is constructed by Francis Gibbons and Francis Kelly. It is fitted with a three- and one-half order Fresnel lens exhibiting a fixed white light with varied red flashes to distinguish it from the Sandy Point Shoal lighthouse across the bay. The light is first exhibited on August 15. It is also furnished with a machine operated fog bell, struck at intervals of five seconds.
1873: During the winter of 1872-73, the lighthouse sustains considerable damage. Two main columns of the lighthouse are broken, and two ice-breaker piles are carried away. The light is discontinued, and keeper removed for several days until it can be repaired. After an appropriation of $10,000 on March 3, the lighthouse is repaired, and riprap stone is placed around the lighthouse forming an artificial island. The location of the lighthouse is one of the most exposed in the district and an additional appropriation of $5,000 is recommended to complete the repairs.
1874: Congress appropriates an additional $5,000 for additional riprap stone on June 23 and the riprap stone is placed around the structure in the fall to protect from future ice floes.
1875: The light is reduced from a three-and-one-half to a fifth-order lens with a fixed white light on November 15.
1879: Ice surrounds the lighthouse but does no damage. An additional 100 cubic yards of heavy stone is added on top of the old riprap to protect the lighthouse.
1890: The original fog bell machine is replaced with a new one in June.
1899: New model fifth-order lamps are installed.
1901: 954-feet of new decking is installed, soundings are made around the lighthouse, and various repairs are made.
1916: Assistant Keeper W.M. Midgett rescues a drowning man.
1919: The ironwork is repaired.
1924: Keeper Arthur Midgett assists a disabled boat with two men aboard.
1926: Keeper Arthur Midgett helped people on board a disabled motorboat around September 9.
1927: Keeper Arthur Midgett helps a disabled motorboat with three men on July 5.
1928: Keeper Arthur Midgett rescues a man whose fishing boat overturned on October 21.
1936: On behalf of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, five men walk six miles to the lighthouse from the mainland when ice threatens the lighthouse. Keeper Otho Bounds is safely evacuated, and the lighthouse remained unattended until the ice danger is gone.
1953: The lighthouse is automated.
1964: The lighthouse is dismantled, and an automatic light is erected on the remaining screwpile foundation.
2020: Remains of the original lighthouse can still be seen on the riprap island and the automated light is gone. The current beacon is a diamond-shaped day board on a skeleton tower near the remaining foundation. The beacon is visible from the end of route 18.
Sources:
- Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board, various years.
- Annual Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of Finances, various years.
- Lighthouse Service Bulletin, various years
- Forgotten Beacons, Patrick Hornberger & Linda Turbyville, 1997
- The Daily Times, February 11, 1936
