Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

Lights Funded in Virginia and North Carolina, 1852–1854 The U.S. Lighthouse Board and the U.S. Lighthouse Service actively responded to concerns about the lack of funding for southern lighthouses. In Virginia and North Carolina alone, from 1852 to 1854, 17 lighthouses as well as dozens of buoys, floating lights, day beacons, and fog bells were funded. 11 James River Light Stations – Square at First White Shoal, Point of Shoals, and Deep Water Shoals, the first screwpile lighthouses constructed in Virginia, were to be square cottages on five pilings over water. Jordan Jordan Point Light, also built in 1855, differed in that it was a lightkeeper’s house with the lantern located on the roof. In August 1853, the Lighthouse Board placed advertisements soliciting bids for the James River lighthouses and the beacon at Day’s Point. Several bidders submitted proposals, with F. E. Geiger of Washington, D.C., receiving the contract for his bid of $9,890. Geiger placed a bond of $4,000, as required. The contract called for the work to be completed within four months from the signing date. 12

Deed signed by the governor of Virginia, Fred W. M. Holliday

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