Holland Island Bar Light

Aug. 27, 2019
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Holland Island Bar Light, Kedges Strait, Dorchester County, Maryland

Screwpile style lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay, built in 1889.

HOLLAND ISLAND BAR LIGHT

Name of Lighthouse:  Holland Island Bar Light Station
Location:  Off Holland Island in the Holland Straits off the main channel of the Chesapeake Bay, slightly northeast of Point Lookout.
Date Built:  1889
Type of Structure:  White hexagonal dwelling on a cast iron screw-pile foundation.
Height: 42 feet above the water's surface.
Characteristics:  4,500 candlepower light emitted white flashes visible for 12 miles twice every 10 seconds.
Foghorn: Diaphone.
Appropriation: 
Status:  No longer standing

Historical Information: 

  • The station was established in 1889.
  • Sometime in 1957 a U.S. Navy aircraft on bombing practice damaged the light station.
  • As of 1957 the station was manned by four Coast Guardsmen: BML1 Arnold W. Doyle; SN David L. Ferrell; EN3 William T. Scott; and EN2 Donald Warren.
  • In November 1959 bids were invited to demolish the current light station and build a new one.  The bid called for: "demolition of the existing one and one-half story wood-frame dwelling and storage platform underneath the dwelling, and construction of a concrete deck, concrete block house and steel tower."  The new light would be automated.
  • The Coast Guard lit the newly constructed light sometime in early to mid-1960.