Fishing Battery Lighthouse with fish hatchery Photograph courtesy NOAA

In 1851 Congress authorized $5,000 for the prolific lighthouse-builder John Donahoo to construct a lighthouse at Fishing Battery. Acquisition of island property for the lighthouse is somewhat of a curiosity. Records indicate that the government paid $600 to a Mr. Otho Scott, for a 45 ft. x 45 ft. parcel. Two weeks later, however, the government paid $10 to Donahoo for the same land. The lighthouse builder did own the island about ten years before the government purchase, but Donahoo had sold it or lost the title since that time. As Donahoo brokered the sale, perhaps the $10 was payment for his services. In any event, the U.S. attorney general approved the purchase of the island from Mr. Scott.

The lighthouse, a one-and-a-half-story, brick dwelling with an integrated lantern room centered on its pitched roof, was built in 1853. The original light source was five lamps outfitted with reflectors. Just a few years later, the Lighthouse Board began to make changes to the light, when an inspection revealed that Fishing Battery’s lantern, along with those of several other Bay lighthouses, was “of an old and exceedingly defective character.” The Board decided that in “the interests of commerce...steps (should) be taken to remedy the evil.” First, the lens was upgraded to a sixth-order Fresnel, and in 1864, the defective lantern was replaced. This apparently did not suffice, for just three years later, Fishing Battery and three other Maryland lighthouses were granted “new and improved” lanterns. At the turn of the century, the lens was once again upgraded, this time to fifth-order status.

During the eleven year period from 1880-1891, “extensive improvements” like “raising the grade of the island” were made under the direction of the United States Bureau of Fisheries. The Battery had been leased to the Bureau, who removed “the lower floor of the light-house, filled the enclosure with clean soil and laid a concrete floor.” This was done both to improve sanitation and “to conform to the new grade.” To make up for the loss of space, the walls of the lighthouse were apparently raised another level. The bottom floor was earmarked for a boathouse and storage, leaving the keeper and his family with just the second floor that contained a combination kitchen and sitting room, and two bedrooms.

The Bureau of Fisheries ultimately purchased the Battery outright for $15,000. An 1887 drawing of the area shows that the Bureau added an additional residence, a mechanic’s cottage, a storehouse and icehouse, a water tower, a boat basin, coal bins and a boiler. The operation also possessed a fish basin and hatchery as well as a gated shad pond.

Fishing Battery Lighthouse after automation Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

In 1921, a 38-foot steel tower was placed on the island to exhibit a new light powered by acetylene gas. The light station was automated in 1939, the same year the Coast Guard assumed responsibility for all the nation’s aids to navigation. In 1942, Fishing Battery Island was deeded to the Department of the Interior to be used as part of a migratory bird and wildlife refuge with the stipulation that there be “no interference with the use of the small area for lighthouse purposes.” Known as the Susquehanna Wildlife Refuge the area was home to thousands of ducks. Changes in water quality and quantity severely impacted the area, and Hurricane Agnes in 1972 destroyed what remained of the good waterfowl vegetation. The waters were subsequently returned to the State of Maryland in 1978, but the Fishing Battery Island remains a part of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The Battery Island Preservation Society, working closely with the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, proposed a plan to transform the dilapidated lighthouse and eroding island into a public park and historic bed and breakfast. The project received official approval, but the effort had fizzled by the time an official lease agreement was ready.

While groups like the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum make alternate arrangements, the lighthouse and its dwindling grounds have endured increasingly brazen acts of vandalism. In 1992 it was reported that the stair treads, shutters, window sashes and other wooden parts were all torn from the building and used as fuel for a bonfire. In 1994, a metal plaque indicating the lighthouse’s historical value was stolen the same weekend it was put up. Newly applied plywood coverings for the lighthouse’s windows and doors were also ripped off and used in campfires.

On a recent Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society trip to the Battery aboard the 49-foot skipjack Martha Lewis, it was evident that the 1853 structure was suffering from severe neglect. Society members described the island as “a patch of dry land only inches above lapping high-tide waves,” and its historic lighthouse as “a rundown two-story stone house that shoulders a ruined 32 foot-high turreted light tower.” The 36 members aboard that day climbed down into a motorboat hanging off the Martha Lewis, and in groups of four or five made their way through the shallow waters to a wooden landing located a few feet from the lighthouse. In addition to the lighthouse, the small island is home to a single picnic table, and a few scruffy trees. Recent island visitors have left behind evidence of their stay in the form of beer cans and fire rings.

Despite its derelict appearance, local citizens and volunteers have not given up hope. Local architects and engineers have donated time towards a feasibility study for the restoration of the island. The island’s preservation society has obtained estimates for rebuilding the stone bulkheads that previously encircled the island. Most of the bulkheads are still in the area and would only require being moved back into position. The lighthouse itself is still structurally intact, and the ambitious goal is to restore its cisterns, boathouse and cast-iron lantern. Future plans would also include the restoration of some of the demolished outbuildings like the fish hatcheries, which were so vital to area commerce in the 1800s. While the whereabouts of the lighthouse’s Fresnel lens is officially unknown, it is rumored that the lens is being kept safe by friends of the lighthouse in anticipation of the structure’s eventual renovation.

Photo Gallery: 1

References

1. Bay Beacons, Linda Turbeyville, 1995.
2. “Lighthouses: Left Behind by History, Silent Sentries Weather Neglect,” The Washington Times, June 24, 1999.