Drum Point Lighthouse

About this property

Drum Point Light Station also known as Drum Point Lighthouse is one of four surviving Chesapeake Bay screw-pile lighthouses. Originally located off Drum Point at the mouth of the Patuxent River, Maryland, United States, it is now an exhibit at the Calvert Marine Museum. In 1853, a report was filed by Lieutenant A. M. Pennock working for the United States Lighthouse Board. His survey mentioned that "a small light should be placed on Drum Point, inside of the Patuxent River." During storms, vessels would shelter there and several vessels had "brought up on the spit." On August 3, 1854, following that report, $5,000 were appropriated by Congress to build "a light-house on Drum Point, entrance of Patuxent River.". However, it was not used to build the project for 18 years. In spite of subsequent requests by steamship operators, further funding did not come until August 1882. On August 7, 1882, Congress appropriated $25,000 for the "establishment of two range lights at the mouth of the Patuxent River." The funds were not adequate for such a project, and it was never seriously considered for execution. The Lighthouse Service, due to the "smallness of the appropriation" decided to build a lighthouse as originally planned in 1854. A 5-acre (2.0 ha) offshore lot was obtained. A screw-pile lighthouse design was selected by the board. Work started on July 17, 1883. The 10-inch-diameter, wrought-iron piles were made by the Allentown Rolling Mills of Philadelphia and fitted with three-foot-wide auger flanges. Once on site, the seven piles were hand bored into the bottom of the river. This part of the operation was completed by July 24, 1883. The house or "cottage" itself was then assembled. It had six sides, and stood one-and-a-half-story tall. Made of wood, it had mortised and tenoned joints. To protect it from the elements, it was sheathed with weatherboards. The exterior walls were painted white, while the metal roof and pilings were painted red. For ventilation and light, two doors and six windows opened outward on a gallery surrounding the structure from which two iron ladders went down to the water's edge. Bell room (located as far as possible from the keeper's room) A flight of stairs led to the lantern room, where the lens was housed. The prefabrication and the 10-foot depth of water allowed for the lighthouse to be built for only $5,000 as per the appropriation of 1853 and in only 33 days. The Fresnel lens used was made by Henry Le Paute of Paris at a cost of $1,200. It used a fourth-order Fresnel lens with prisms covering the 270° needed to cover the area of water. The focal plane of the beam was 47 ft above the water. On a clear night, it could be seen 13 nautical miles (24 km; 15 mi) from the deck of a vessel 15 ft above the sea.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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