Dangerous Waters

At the point where the Susquehanna River meets the Chesapeake Bay, Concord Point Lighthouse protected vessels from dangerous shoals, currents, and rocks for 148 years. Built in 1827 by Harford County native and prominent lighthouse contractor John Donohoo, who built 12 of the first Chesapeake Bay lighthouses and also served as Havre de Grade town commissioner in the early 1800s, it stood at the end of Concord Street in Havre de Grace and took its name from the street, which had been named after the battle of Concord in 1775 when the town renamed many streets at the end of the Revolutionary War. Built of Port Deposit granite, the lighthouse had an unusual black 9 sided lantern, stone walls at the base 3 feet 11 inches thick, and a tower 36 feet tall, with a light visible 8½ miles away. Originally lit by 9 whale oil lamps, it was electrified and automated in 1920, remained in service until the U.S. Coast Guard decommissioned it in 1975, and was preserved beginning in 1979 by The Friends of Concord Point Lighthouse, who sought to keep a light burning in the tower. In the 1800s, keel boats carrying goods down the Susquehanna River and bay schooners sailing up the bay faced serious danger here because their wooden hulls could easily break on the rocks at the river's mouth, and the lighthouse safeguarded the area's heavy merchant traffic.

Havre de Grace, Maryland · United States