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Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse (Chesapeake Bay, Relocated to Baltimore, Maryland)
The Seven Foot Knoll
lighthouse today sits on Pier 5 in Baltimore’s inner harbor where was moved in
October of 1988. Originally, the Seven Foot
Knoll Lighthouse was located at the mouth of the Patapsco River, an area know
for its dangerous wakes.. The
Lighthouse was built in 1855 and was the second screwpile lighthouse to be built
on the Chesapeake Bay. Screwpile lighthouses were a
popular design in the latter half of the 1800s and a total of about 40 were
constructed on the bay. Screwpile
lighthouses are very distinctive in their design. The house, often a
cottage-like looking structure is built on top of cast iron pilings.
The pilings have cork-screw-like bases that are screwed into the soft sea
floor mud. The
Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse had nine cast-iron screw piles that supported a
gallery deck approximately nine feet above mean high water. The house was built
on top the gallery deck and was made of 1" thick rolled iron plates bolted
together. The advantage of this design was that the plates could be made on land
and then assembled at the lighthouse location. The structural members were made
at the Baltimore iron foundry of Murray and Hazelhurst. The original house was
replaced in the late 19th century by the present wrought iron, riveted
superstructure. The lighthouse was fitted with a 4th order Fresnel lens that
stood about 40 feet above the water and was visible for 12 miles. As
with most of the screwpile lighthouses on the Chesapeake Bay, the Seven Foot
Knoll lighthouse suffered damage from the winter ice floes. In 1884 one of the
piles was broken by ice. Wooden
piles were placed around the lighthouse to take the brunt of the ice impact and
help protect the lighthouse structure. The wooden piles lasted only a few years,
however, and in 1894 an examination showed that wooden piles were no longer
there and more damage had occurred to the main piles from the ice.
The base was then strengthened by depositing 790 cubic yards of riprap
stone around the base of the structure. The
lighthouse served for 133 years. It was manned until 1948 when it was automated
by the U.S. Coast Guard. As with
many unmanned lighthouses, the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse structure suffered
from neglect and also vandalism. The U.S. Coast Guard deactivated the light in
1987 and replaced it by a steel tower.
The Coast Guard generously donated the lighthouse to the City of
Baltimore in 1988. The lighthouse was removed from its location at the mouth of
the Patapsco River and carried by barge to its present location on Pier 5 of
Baltimore’s inner harbor. The
move was engineered by the Empire Construction Company. With grants from
Maryland Historical Trust and Wheelabrator Corporation and enthusiastic help of
the Steinheise family, volunteers and students the lighthouse was restored - a
project that took approximately one year to complete. In 1997 the Seven Foot
Knoll Lighthouse became part of the Baltimore Maritime Museum.
[Back to the Maryland Lighthouse Page]
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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. Copyright (c) 2000 Rick Totton.
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