Pooles Island Light, near the mouth of the Gunpowder River in the central Chesapeake Bay, is Maryland’s oldest surviving lighthouse and the fourth oldest in the bay region. Chosen early as a crucial navigation point, it was funded by Congress in 1824 and built by John Donahoo and Simon Frieze, with a granite tower, keeper’s house, and Maryland’s first fog bell tower. Its lighting system was later modernized, but the island’s role changed after federal purchase in 1917 and transfer to the Army. Decommissioned in 1939, the lighthouse survived, was listed on the National Register in 1997, and was relit in 2011, though the island remains closed because of unexploded ordnance.