Painted Hooper Straight Lighthouse

This digitally painted accent piece will please any collector or anyone with an eye for color and texture. The oil paint processing technique lends... more

by Skip Willits

Title

Painted Hooper Straight Lighthouse

Artist

Skip Willits

Medium

Photograph - Epson Lustre Paper

Description

This digitally painted accent piece will please any collector or anyone with an eye for color and texture. The oil paint processing technique lends additional tone and texture to the image and is best seen enlarged.
HOOPER STRAIT LIGHTHOUSE
St. Michaels, Maryland

The most direct passage into Tangier Sound from the northern part of the Chesapeake Bay is through Hooper Strait, a circuitous channel between Bloodsworth Island on the south, and Hooper Island and Bishops Head on the north. This area was the first site of the only lightship ever-stationed in Maryland waters (1827-1867).

In 1867 a screwpile lighthouse was built and the lightship service ended. Ten years later ice carried the building away, but the lens, lantern and some furniture was found in the wreckage five miles south of the original site. A new screwpile was constructed in 1879 in nine feet of water near the original site. In 1954 the light was automated and in 1966 was declared by the Coast Guard as surplus property. The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum acquired it and moved to their grounds at Navy Point on the Miles River in St. Michaels, Md.

The lighthouse, 42 tons and 44 feet in diameter, is now restored to its original condition, and can be viewed daily at the museum. The whole venture of removing the structure from the water, barging it up to the Miles River and reconstructing it cost $26,000. Almost twice the original cost of the building.

Uploaded

April 20th, 2018