Mathias Point Light

The Mathias Point Light was a screw-pile lighthouse in the Potomac River in Maryland; the station was located near the Port Tobacco River. It was particularly noted for its ornate woodwork.

History

Funds for a light near Quantico, Virginia were appropriated in 1872. An engineering study recommended instead that lights be built 24 miles (39 km) downstream, and an appropriation was made in 1874 to build a light on Port Tobacco Flats, with a day beacon for Matthias Point. By the time construction began the two were switched, and the light was completed in 1876. Matthias Point was like no other screw-pile structure on the bay, with much decorative woodwork and a distinctive three tiered structure that some described as resembling a wedding cake.

It was intended that this light replace that at Upper Cedar Point; in the end the number of complaints led to the latter's reactivation in 1882. Matthias Point Light itself was automated in 1951 and replaced in 1961 by a beacon mounted on the old foundation.

References

• Mathias Point Shoal Light Chesapeake Chapter, USLHS page
• "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Maryland". United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. 
• de Gast, Robert (1973). The Lighthouses of the Chesapeake. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 157. 

External links

• Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of the United States: Maryland". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

v t e Lighthouses of Maryland Baltimore Harbor Light Blakistone Island Light Bloody Point Bar Light Bodkin Island Light Cedar Point Light Choptank River Light Clay Island Light Cobb Point Bar Light Concord Point Light Cove Point Light Craighill Channel Lower Range Front Light Craighill Channel Lower Range Rear Light Craighill Channel Upper Range Front Light Craighill Channel Upper Range Rear Light Drum Point Light Fishing Battery Light Fog Point Light Fort Carroll Light Fort Washington Light Great Shoals Light Greenbury Point Light Hawkins Point Light Holland Island Bar Light Hooper Island Light Hooper Strait Light Janes Island Light Lazaretto Point Light Leading Point Light Love Point Light Lower Cedar Point Light Maryland Point Light Mathias Point Light North Point Range Lights Piney Point Light Point Lookout Light Point No Point Light Pooles Island Light Ragged Point Light Sandy Point Shoal Light Seven Foot Knoll Light Sharkfin Shoal Light Sharps Island Light Solomons Lump Light Somers Cove Light Thomas Point Shoal Light Triton Light Turkey Point Light Upper Cedar Point Light