In 1851 the Lighthouse Board proposed building a screwpile lighthouse at Seven Foot Shoal on the Patapsco, and in 1854 the contract for Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse was awarded to Murray & Hazelhurst of Baltimore. Built at the mouth of the Patapsco River to warn ships entering Baltimore Harbor of the shoal called Seven Foot Knoll, it was the only round cottage-style screwpile lighthouse constructed in the Chesapeake Bay. Designed for a head keeper and two assistants, it also housed the families of several keepers. Major repairs were made to failing piles in 1884. In 1933 Head Keeper Thomas J. Steinhise rescued the crew of a tugboat during a terrible storm at sea, earning a silver lifesaving medal, and he retired in 1941 after 11 years as the last full-time head keeper. From 1941 to 1948, keepers were temporary Coast Guard personnel, and the lighthouse was automated in 1948. In the 1980s, because of deterioration, the Coast Guard declared it surplus property, and a new steel tower was erected on Seven Foot Knoll Shoal. Ownership passed to the City of Baltimore in 1987, and in 1988 the lighthouse was moved to Pier 5 in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. In 1997 the Baltimore Maritime Museum, now HSIB, began maintaining it on Pier 5 for the city.