Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

Old Plantation Lighthouse

Image by Sheally

Roanoke Marshes Replica Lighthouse, Manteo, North Carolina Set on the waterfront in the town of Manteo on Roanoke Island, the replica of the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse serves locals and visitors alike as a place for historical and educational activities under the auspices of the North Carolina Maritime Museum. Completed in September 2004, the replica is an exterior reconstruction of the original square screwpile lighthouse that stood nearby until it was decommissioned in 1955. The original Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, built in 1831, was short-lived. The structure required frequent repairs, and a property dispute questioned the validity of its site. A second Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, a hexagonal screwpile, first shone its light on April 15, 1858, but was also short-lived. Flooding and worm damage deteriorated its wood pilings. When the lighthouse was abandoned, parts of the iron-foundation structure found new life recycled into the Nansemond River Lighthouse in Virginia. In 1877, the third Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse, a square screwpile, began service in a new location, 100 yards from the former site, in Wanchese, North Carolina, at the southern entrance to the Croatan Sound. That lighthouse finally

was decommissioned in 1955, and a later salvage attempt sent the lighthouse irretrievably into the sound.

Now, the replica of the 1877 lighthouse, equipped with a fourth-order Fresnel lens, serves as a navigational aid for mariners in Shallowbag Bay. Old Plantation Flats Replica Lighthouse, Cape Charles, Virginia One of the most striking full-size lighthouse replicas stands on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Tom Stevenson, PGA, director of operations at a trio of golf courses in Virginia Beach and Cape Charles, worked with Richard “Dickie” Foster, developer of Bay Creek, a high-end golf and beach resort at Cape Charles, Virginia, to create the replica. In 1961, Foster was a teenager working as a day laborer on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. The Old Plantation Flats Lighthouse was still part of the Cape Charles landscape then. Foster fell under the spell of the historic town, its beauty and spirit, and dreamed of creating a community there that would reflect those attributes. He fulfilled that dream in 2001 when he opened the 1,700-plus acre Bay Creek with a marina and two golf courses—and soon, a lighthouse.

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