Point Lookout Lighthouse

Year Built

1830

Cost

$4,500

Type

Keeper's house with lantern on roof

Height

41 feet (originally 24 feet)

Location

Northern mouth of the Potomac River

Automated Year

N/A

First Lit

1830

Lens Type

Fourth order Fresnel lens

Fog Signal

Fog bell tower (no longer standing)

Year Deactivated

1966

Color

Red lantern

Last Keeper - Date

Raymond Hartzel (1965 – 1966)

Description

The access to the lighthouse is open to the public by Appointment.

Brief History

•  A fourth order Fresnel lens was installed in the 1850s shortly after the reorganization of all U.S. lights under the newly created Lighthouse Board.
•  1883, the lighthouse was substantially enlarged so that two families of keepers could live there.
•  In 1888 a new, taller, fog bell tower was built as an attachment to the east end of the coal shed.
•  1965, the light was replaced by an off-shore steel tower and shortly thereafter the property was turned over to the U.S. Navy.
•  1968, the bell tower was disconnected from the coal shed and moved to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland.