The Mathias Point Light was a

screw-pile lighthouse A screw-pile lighthouse is a lighthouse which stands on piles that are screwed into sandy or muddy sea or river bottoms. The first screw-pile lighthouse to begin construction was built by the blind Irish engineer Alexander Mitchell. Constructi ...

in the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia, Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Datas ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; ...

; the station was located near the

Port Tobacco River The Port Tobacco River is a tidal tributary of the Potomac River located in Charles County, Maryland in the United States. The river is approximately in length.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data ...

. It was particularly noted for its ornate woodwork.

History

Funds for a light near

Quantico, Virginia Quantico ( or ; formerly Potomac) is a town in Prince William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 480 at the 2010 census. Quantico is approximately 35 miles southwest of Washington, DC, bordered by the Potomac River to the east a ...

were appropriated in 1872. An engineering study recommended instead that lights be built downstream, and an appropriation was made in 1874 to build a light on Port Tobacco Flats, with a

day beacon A day beacon (sometimes "daybeacon") is an unlighted nautical sea mark. A signboard identifying it is called a day mark. Day beacons typically mark channels whose key points are marked by lighted buoys. They may also mark smaller navigable rou ...

for Mathias Point. By the time construction began the two were switched, and the light was completed in 1876. Matthias Point was like no other screw-pile structure on the bay, with much decorative woodwork and a distinctive three tiered structure that some described as resembling a

wedding cake A wedding cake is the traditional cake served at wedding receptions following dinner. In some parts of England, the wedding cake is served at a wedding breakfast; the 'wedding breakfast' does not mean the meal will be held in the morning, but at ...

. It was intended that this light replace that at Upper Cedar Point; in the end the number of complaints led to the latter's reactivation in 1882. Mathias Point Light itself was automated in 1951 and replaced in 1961 by a beacon mounted on the old foundation.

References

Mathias Point Shoal Light
Chesapeake Chapter, USLHS page * *

External links

* {{authority control Lighthouses in Maryland Lighthouses completed in 1876 Lighthouses in the Chesapeake Bay Buildings and structures demolished in 1961 Transportation buildings and structures in Charles County, Maryland