“Drum
Point Lighthouse” by Paul McGehee. The picturesque screw-pile
lighthouse on a sunny summer's day in 1918. The lighthouse once warned
mariners away from the shoals of Drum Point, Maryland where the
Patuxent River meets the Chesapeake Bay. Constructed in 1883, Drum
Point Lighthouse was manned and operational from the 1880's up until
1960, when it was automated and ran as such until 1962 when it was
finally decommissioned by the U.S. Coast Guard. Originally positioned
away from the mainland in waters 10' deep, the silting and shoaling
shoreline at Drum Point soon found the waters receding and more and
more sand approaching the little light with each passing year. By the
turn of the century a wooden footbridge was constructed so that the the
lighthouse keeper and his family could better access the building,
their home, without the use of a boat. After Drum Point Lighthouse was
decommissioned it lay vacant and in disrepair for several years, until
the Calvert County Historical Society acquired the light in 1974. As
the land underneath her was still owned by the government, the Society
had the lighthouse's supports cut from the ground, and the structure
then transported by barge a little over 2 miles to the grounds of the
nearby Calvert Marine Museum
where she has been fully restored and is now on display for the public
to enjoy. As many of her kind were scrapped following decommissioning,
the Drum Point Lighthouse is one of four original Chesapeake Bay
screw-pile type lighthouses that still exist.
“Drum Point Lighthouse” is faithfully reproduced as an archival-quality print from
McGehee's original color pencil and acrylic artwork, each hand-signed
by the artist.
|
