The Roanoke River Lighthouse, the last remaining screw pile lighthouse in North Carolina, was built as the third lighthouse at its site after the first, constructed in 1866 six miles east of Plymouth, was destroyed by fire in 1885 and the second was partially submerged by an ice floe in Albemarle Sound in 1886. Designed for river use, the structure was secured by a framework attached to pilings screwed into the riverbed and was equipped with a fourth order Fresnel lens and a kerosene lamp. It was staffed for 47 years, then operated by automation for another eight years before being decommissioned by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1941. In 1955 it was purchased by tugboat captain Emmitt Wiggins and moved 32 miles to Edenton for use as a private residence, and after another purchase and relocation it was restored and opened to the public in 2012 as a museum operated by Historic Edenton State Historic Site.