Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

Courtesy of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

A new screwpile lighthouse (the one that is now a highlight of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum) opened in 1879 with solid iron screwpiles imbedded 10 feet into the bay bottom. The new light served as a manned station until its light was automated in 1954. But the elements—and vandals—took their toll on the unmanned lighthouse. In 1966, the Coast Guard decommissioned the lighthouse and sold it as surplus property to a demolition contractor who, in turn, sold the structure to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum for $1,000. To move the lighthouse, museum officials had it sawed in half under the eaves, then loaded onto two barges towed by tugs to its current site on the museum grounds at Navy Point in St. Michaels. Workers reassembled the lighthouse onto its new

foundation and painted it as it was originally. A fourth-order Fresnel lens completed the restoration. Replicas The storied screwpiles of generations ago inspired contemporary replicas in some unexpected places, from golf courses and marinas to residential neighborhoods.

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