National Register of Historic Places
Graighill Channel Lower Range Rear Light Station
Edgemere vicinity, Baltimore County, Maryland
The record
- Listed
- December 2, 2002
- Type
- Structure
- Address
- Edgemere area, Edgemere vicinity
- County
- Baltimore
- State
- Maryland
- Period of significance
- 1850 to 1949
- Contributing resources
- 1 structure
- Coordinates
- 39.22902, -76.39439
- Reference number
- 02001418
The story
Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com
The Graighill Channel Lower Range Rear Light Station is a light station near Edgemere in Baltimore County, Maryland, completed in 1875.
Why it's listed
It was listed in the National Register in 2002 under criteria A and C, with local-level significance in maritime history, transportation and architecture. Its period of significance runs from 1873, when a temporary light was first shown here, to 1937, when the station was automated.
Physical character
The tower is a square pyramidal cast-iron exoskeleton on granite foundation piers, with wood walls covered in corrugated sheet metal and a sheet-metal roof. Wooden braces were replaced with iron swivel and Phoenix beam braces in 1884, and the tower's base timbers were replaced and reinforced with iron in 1897. The keeper's dwelling was a 1 1/2-story wooden building with a mansard roof and pedimented dormers, and the light used a classic Fresnel lens.
Historical context
Congress appropriated $50,000 in 1870 to widen the Craighill Channel and $45,000 more in 1872 and 1874 to build two range lights there. Construction began with a cofferdam and a temporary light in 1873 and finished in 1875. A lawsuit over unauthorized occupation of the site arose in 1888, and in 1994 a Coast Guard survey recommended demolishing the tower.