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 SEVEN
FOOT KNOLL
Seven Foot Knoll is the first screw-pile lighthouse built in
Maryland.
Out of the forty-two screw-piles lighthouse
built on the Chesapeake Bay, it is one of only four that is still standing.
It is the oldest surviving screw-pile lighthouse built
as an aid to navigation on the Chesapeake Bay.
Originally located
at the mouth of the Patapsco River, The Seven
Foot Knoll Lighthouse marked the shoal known as Seven Foot Knoll for 133
years.
NPS photo by Candace Clifford, 1994
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COOL FACTS
The first structure was an iron cottage
sitting on top of nine iron piles which formed an octagon with the ninth pile
in the center.
The original octagonal
cottage, built in 1855, was replaced somewhere around 1875 with the
current cylindrical structure. In January of 1884 ice
flows broke some of the iron piles. These were
repaired.
However, ten years later ice had again
damaged the foundation piles. Workers piled large amounts of rip rap
stone around the lighthouse to help protect it. The lighthouse was automated
in 1949 and the Coast Guard maintained the light.
After the lighthouse fell victim to its age and the
elements, the Coast Guard generously donated the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse
to Baltimore City.
Initially the renovated lighthouse
served as the offices of the Living Classroom Foundation.
However, it is now open to the public along with the Lightship
Chesapeake and the World War II submarine, Torsk.
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Originally
the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse stood
in the entrance to the Patapsco River,
Chesapeake Bay. In 1988
the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse came to Baltimore's Inner Harbor. It is
now part of the Baltimore Maritime Museum and is open to the public. |
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The Keepers' Life From 1856 until 1919, keepers at Seven Foot Knoll lived in the lighthouse
along with their families.
Between 1919 and 1948 keepers worked in pairs,
with each receiving 8 days of shore leave per month.
"Seven Foot Knoll is
particularly famous for the actions of one of its keepers – Thomas
Steinheise. During the infamous storm of 1933 (which
also severed New Point Comfort Light in Virginia from the mainland),
Steinheise single-handedly went forth in his small tender boat and rescued
five men from a foundering tug boat. He was awarded a
Congressional Medal of Heroism (the highest civilian honor) for his
bravery." - US Coast Guard history |
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EXTRA CREDIT
Why is the Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse called a
"screwpile?"
The innovative screw-pile lighthouse
design, which made its first appearance in the United States in 1850,
eliminated the need for underwater masonry foundations to support a
lighthouse.
Screw-pile lighthouses were suspended
above the water by a system of cast-iron pilings with corkscrew-like
bases, which could be screwed into the soft mud of the sea floor.
The Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse was the
second screw-pile lighthouse built on the Chesapeake Bay and was
constructed on nine cast-iron screw piles supporting a gallery deck some
nine feet above mean high water.
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Discover more about the
Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse at the
Baltimore Maritime Museum website:http://www.baltomaritimemuseum.org/lh/sevenfootknoll.html
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