They are fixtures on the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River and have been protecting watermen and seafarers for generations from tides, shoals, shallow waters and other marine hazards.
They are Southern Maryland lighthouses, and there are several in the area still standing or reconstructed: Blackistone, Piney Point, Point No Point, Cedar Point and Point Lookout in St. Mary’s County, and Drum Point and Cove Point in Calvert County.
There were also five lighthouses in Charles County: Cobb Point Bar, Lower Cedar Point, Upper Cedar Point, Maryland Point and Mathias Point, all of which were in the Potomac River and all of which have been dismantled.
“It’s the romance of saving people from shipwrecks and living isolated,” St. Mary’s County Museum Division Manager Karen Stone said. “With all the water here, you need them because if you look at the charts and channels it goes from lots of water to ‘Oh, here there isn’t [much]’ very quickly.”
There are several different types of lighthouses, including tower (built on land), screwpile (in water), cottage (such as Cove Point), cassion (drone-shaped) and integral (with the light inside the home).