Mid-Atlantic Lighthouses 2013 Forever Stamps — Coastal Collection, Pane of 20

Issue facts

Issue Date: August 6, 2021
First Day City: Highlands, NJ
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method: Offset
Format: Pane of 20

Thomas Point Shoal Light

The Chesapeake Bay light in this series does not stand on land. It sits on metal posts screwed directly into the floor of the bay.

An onshore stone tower was built on Thomas Point in 1825 and replaced in 1838, the point eroding too quickly to hold it. In 1875 Congress authorized a screw-pile structure offshore instead, and Thomas Point Shoal Light was lit for the first time that November, its cast iron beams driven twelve feet into the bay bottom.

The bay tested it immediately. Winter ice tore out and destroyed the original lens in 1877; when the lens was replaced, additional supports were added to the screw-pile foundation.

Why it matters

By 1964 it was the last manned lighthouse in the Chesapeake, and it was automated in 1986. As of 2021 it remained the only unaltered screw-pile cottage-type lighthouse still standing on its original foundation anywhere in the bay — which is why Maryland treats it as a piece of state history rather than just a navigation aid.

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