(Located on a shoal off the mouth of Old Plantation Creek near the start of the channel leading to the town of Cape Charles, VA – 03-31-18)
1886 White rectangular cottage built on a combination of screw piles and concrete pilons. Fitted with 4th-order Fresnel lens.
1894 Charles Edwin Respess serves as keeper.
1896 Lighthouse damaged by ice floes; lens destroyed. Lens replaced one month later with 5th-order lantern.
1897 Lens replaced with 4th-order lantern from Hog Island Lighthouse.
1904 Clarence Walter Salter serves as Assistant Keeper.
1906 Fog signal installed.
1908 – 1912 Salter serves as Keeper.
1918 Lighthouse again damaged by ice floes.
1939 Four Coast Guardsmen assigned to maintain light with rotational duty.
1962 Lighthouse decommissioned and dismantled; was the last manned lighthouse on the eastern side of the Chesapeake Bay. Automated light attached to old foundation piers.
2004 Faithful replica lighthouse built at Bay Creek Resort and Club off VA 184 near the town of Cape Charles – two miles from original beacon location.
2013-2014 Complicated lawsuit between resort and developer Paul Galloway awards replica to Galloway.
Source: Lighthouse Directory – https://cheslights.org/old-plantation-flats/
