Thursday, September 22, 2016

Lighthouse of the Week, September 18-24, 2016: Thomas Point Shoal, Maryland


Living in Maryland, I decided to see what popped up when I searched for "Maryland's Most Famous Lighthouse".   The basic consensus, design-wise, was the screwpile light, of which there used to be many, but now there are only four remaining -- and the only one in its original location is the Thomas Point Shoal lighthouse.

What's neat about these lighthouses is that they have a nice big house under the light (not the tiny lighthouse keeper's quarters a lot of other places).  Here's what Lighthouse Friends says about that, with regard to the Thomas Point Shoal light:
"The cottage’s first level is divided into five rooms: a mechanical room, bedroom, bathroom, dayroom, and kitchen. Although the original privy is still cantilevered over the bay from the lower gallery, the Coast Guard installed an indoor “incinomode,” an electrically superheated toilet that incinerates waste, around 1971. A central, spiral staircase leads to the second floor, where another bedroom and a room that formerly housed the fog bell striking mechanism are located. The lantern room, accessed by a ships ladder from the second level, is situated forty-three feet above mean high tide. After having been replaced by a modern beacon, the historic Fresnel lens formerly housed in the lantern room was removed to the Commander’s Office of the Coast Guard in Baltimore." "
Nice, eh?  I guess you'd get used to the bell.

The lighthouse is now owned and maintained by the Maritime Museum in Annapolis:  here's more about it, including how to reserve a tour, if you want to go see it directly.

And below are three nice shots of this iconic structure.







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