Cove Point Community & Homes For Sale!
To Search for Homes and waterfront in Cove Point please feel free to visit my website: www.somdforsale.com
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Cove Point is a beautiful site on the Chesapeake Bay where one can look back at the Calvert Cliffs, see across to the Eastern Shore, and observe the LNG (liquid natural gas) platform to the north. There is a small observation platform that lets one look over the fence for an unobstructed view of these sights, as well as maritime traffic going up and down the bay.
A museum interpreter is on site to greet visitors and answer questions. Interpretive wayside panels tell the story of the lighthouse, its keepers, and the Cove Point area.
Visitors can enter the base of the lighthouse tower and look up the spiral staircase. Since the light will continue to shine as a U.S. Coast Guard aid-to-navigation, the lantern room is off limits to the public..
IMPROVEMENTS AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS
Cove Point Light Station Commission provides an avenue of communications between the museum/county and area residents. We are also maintaining and expanding our relations with the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society, the Cove Point Heritage Land Trust, and Dominion Cove Point LNG. The Chesapeake Chapter of the USLHS has been active for years in the maintenance and preservation of area lighthouses. With nearly 800 members from around the Bay, they are a great source of support for Cove Point and many of them have been active in physically maintaining the site.
HISTORY OF COVE POINT LIGHT
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"This is a stationary light on Cove Point, and elevated 40 feet above the tide. it is intended to lead vessels clear of the long low point on which it stands, close to which are seven fathoms of water. It also serves to guide vessels clear of Cedar Point, and such as are bound into the Patuxent River."
The American Pharos, or Light House Guide, Robert Mills, 1832
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Cove Point Lighthouse was built in 1828 to mark the shoal that extends outwards toward the shipping channel. A total of four acres was purchased at a cost of $300. Today only two acres remain (the other two were given to the liquid natural gas terminal for a safety zone). The light tower and the keeper's house were constructed of locally manufactured brick. The cost of the entire project was $2000.
In 1857 a fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed with a weight driven rotation mechanism. In 1928 the light was converted from kerosene to electricity. At that time, the beacon was visible for twelve nautical miles.
Throughout the years the keeper's house was expanded from a simple dwelling for the keeper and his wife to a two-and-one-half-story duplex to house two keepers and their families. Around 1950, a smaller two-bedroom house was built for a third keeper and his family. An office building was added at the same time to house an emergency generator and radio communication equipment.
March 1986 marked the end of the keeper's job, as the orders for automation were received. By August 16, 1986, Cove Point Lighthouse was officially automated. The new equipment included an automated lamp-changer in the lantern to change burned out lamps and a computer to monitor operations. The beacon is now controlled from Baltimore.
Ownership of the Cove Point Light Station was officially transferred from the U.S. Coast Guard to the Calvert County Government in September 2000. The Calvert Marine Museum began offering tours of the light station in 2002.
Tour Cove Point!
Access to the Cove Point lighthouse grounds is provided at the following times:
June through August:
Grounds are open 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. daily, interpreter on site.
May and September:
Grounds are open weekends and holidays only 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m, interpreter on site.
October through April: Grounds are closed.
Lighthouse Links
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