Clay Island Light stood on Clay Island at the mouth of Maryland’s Nanticoke River, where the Nanticoke River and Fishing Bay meet near the Wicomico River, marking an important route for navigation on the lower Eastern Shore. The island had appeared on Chesapeake maps since at least 1673 under the name Phillips Point. Land for the light was purchased in 1828, and John Donahoo built the station in 1832 as a small house with a roof tower, a common early Chesapeake design. Erosion increasingly threatened the site, and after Sharkfin Shoal Light was completed in 1892, the station was abandoned. The building collapsed in 1894, leaving no trace.