Hooper Strait

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Hooper Strait Lighthouse

(Chesapeake Bay, Relocated to Saint Michaels, Maryland)

The Hooper Strait Lighthouse is today located at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland. Originally, however, the lighthouse was located in Hooper Strait at the mouth of the Tangler Sound, about 40 miles south of St. Michaels in the eastern Chesapeake.

Initially, a seventy-two and one-half ton lightship marked the strait. It was placed there in 1827 and remained until 1867 when the first lighthouse was built. The first lighthouse lasted only ten years before it was destroyed by ice floes. Although the keepers escaped unharmed, the lighthouse was carried five miles downstream and ended up under water up to its roofline. The lamp and lens was rescued but the rest of the lighthouse was destroyed.

In January of 1879 plans for a new screwpile lighthouse at Hooper Strait was approved. The name “screwpile” was derived from the way the piles were engineered. At the end of each pile was a one and one-half turn screw that would allow the piles to be screwed into the sandy bottom (see picture below). Seven wrought iron piles were screwed 25 feet deep into the sandy bottom of the shoal and the cottage style light keepers house was placed on top.

The lighthouse was completed and lit on October 15^th, 1879. The light was fixed white and shone through a 5^thorder Fresnel lens. A red panel was added in 1882. The height of the lens above mean high water was 42 feet. Visibility was 12 miles.

The lighthouse has six rooms – a kitchen, an office, and two bedrooms on the first floor and two rooms on the second floor. The mechanism for a 1200-pound fog bell was in one of the second floor rooms. The bell was hung outside of a double-dormer upper window. The mechanism was wound up every hour and a half and would ring the bell every 12 seconds.

In each of the first floor rooms were placed 200-gallon wooden fresh water tanks. These were filled by rain water that was collected off of the roof into gutters and downspouts.

The lighthouse was electrified in 1938. Two Kohler engine-generators (see picture), a bank of batteries for 32 volts DC, and a Novi engine driven air-compressor for the fog horn was installed. A fuel tank was suspended below the building. The lighthouse was fully automated in December of 1954.

The unmanned lighthouse began to deteriorate with time. The Hooper Strait Lighthouse was slated by the U.S. Coast Guard for destruction in 1966 but was instead spared, being acquired by the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland. The lighthouse was severed from its foundation and barged 40 miles up the bay to the museum site where it was placed on a new screwpile foundation and restored.

The lighthouse is on the grounds of the museum and is open to the public. An entrance fee is collected for access to the museum grounds.

Directions: Follow Route 50 South in Maryland until you come to Easton, Maryland. Just after passing the Easton airport on your right, exit right onto the Easton By-pass/Route 322 South. You will see signs to the Museum and to St. Michaels. At the fourth traffic light, turn right onto Route 33 West to St. Michaels. After about 9 miles Route 33 becomes the main street of St. Michaels. About half a mile into St. Michaels you will see a Museum Entrance sign on the right.

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All pictures are the original work of Rick Totton and are protected under copyright laws.

Do not reproduce any images from this website without permission of the author.