Blakistone Island Light

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Blakistone Island Light, seen from the water.

The Blackistone Island Light was a small lighthouse located on what is now St. Clement's Island on the Potomac River in Maryland.

[edit] History

Congress appropriated $3,500 for the construction of a lighthouse on the island in 1848; John Donahoo was awarded the contract, which cost $4,535. He designed an integral lighthouse, a two-storey brick keeper's dwelling with a tower through its center, which sat on a two-acre plot at the southern tip of the island. Construction was completed, and the light lit, in 1851.

The lighthouse, like many in the South, was a target for Confederate raiders. In 1864, CSA Captain John Goldsmith, a former owner of the island, led a party which destroyed the lighthouse lens and confiscated the oil used to light it; the group then declared its intent to destroy the structure. Keeper Jerome McWilliams, an acquaintance of the Captain's, succeeded in convincing the men not to destroy the light because his wife was pregnant; he argued that destroying the family home would leave both her and the baby vulnerable.

The lighthouse seen from the air in 1928.

The United States Navy purchased the island in 1919 and razed most structures on it, leaving only the lighthouse and building piers and a landing strip. The light was automated in 1932 and left unattended, gradually decaying over the next twenty years. Fire gutted the structure on July 16, 1956; to this day, the cause of the blaze is uncertain, but many suspect that a stray artillery round fired from the weapons range at Dahlgren, Virginia, may have been to blame. In any event, the Navy viewed the shell as a hazard and ordered it razed.

The St. Clements Hundred preservation group has expressed some interest in reconstructing the lighthouse.