The Cove Point Lighthouse is Maryland’s oldest continuously operating lighthouse. The following information is taken from a free pamphlet prepared for tourists visiting the Cove Point Light by the Calvert Marine Museum:

Opened to the public in May 200, the lighthouse is a project of the Calvert Marine Museum. The aids to navigation are maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Cove Point Lighthouse was built by John Donahoo of Havre de Grace, Maryland, in 1828 on just four acres of land. It was designed to mark one of the narrowest parts of the Chesapeake Bay and guide ships safely into thye Patuxent River. The tower is of brick, forty feet high, surmounted by an iron lantern containing a fourth-order Fresnel lens, built in France in 1897. The six panel lens rotates once every minute, producing a flashing white light every ten seconds.

Today, the members of the Coast Gard Auxiliary, Division 23, operate a Coast Guard radio station in the original radio navigation beacon building on weekends during the boating season.

Calvert Marine Museum, on behalf of the Calvert County Government, became the new steward of historic Cove Point Lighthouse in 2000, following over one-hundred-fifty years faithful service by keepers of the U.S. Lighthouse Service and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Contact the Calvert Marine Museum for seasonal schedules of exhibits and tours, group arrangements, and guided tours, call 410-326-2042, ext 41. On the Internet visit http://www.calvertmarinemuseum.com

Cove Point Lighthouse and Coast Guard Auxiliary Radio Station, Cove Point Radio.Reproduced from an original photograph by Radio Rover Flickr.com under a Creative Commons License for non-commercial use. Click photo for more photos of Cove Point Lighthouse