Drum Point Light

Drum Point Light, a Chesapeake Bay screw-pile lighthouse originally built at the mouth of Maryland’s Patuxent River, survives today as one of only four of its type from the bay. After proposals dating to 1853 and long delays, it was constructed in 1883 on seven iron piles in shallow water and equipped with a fourth-order Fresnel lens and fog bell. First lit by keeper Benjamin Gray, it served for 79 years under isolated and demanding conditions, later being upgraded, electrified, and automated. Decommissioned in 1962, it avoided demolition, was moved to the Calvert Marine Museum in 1975, and was restored as a rare record of Chesapeake lighthouse life.

Solomons, Maryland · United States