Hello, all Lighthouse and Chesapeake Bay Lovers!

Have you ever chased a dream? I wanted to put this message out there as a less "stuffy" portion of the website and give you a personal introduction to me and to those of us behind the Craighill Range restoration project. Like us, you also have the ability to be a part of this project from the ground up! I feel lighthouse restoration and accessibility to the public is on the brink of major change, and now is the perfect time to get in on the action and be part of the revolution.

I’m a normal person, like most of you viewing this website – I work a full-time job as a computer consultant, have a husband and two children. I am not a native of the area, but I have lived near water most of my life and feel like a fish on land in Northern Virginia where my family currently resides. I grew up near the Great Lakes and took an early shining to lighthouses. I moved to Florida for school and the start of my career after graduating from high school. My fledgling passion for lighthouses and historic structures really took flight during the ten years I lived there. My best friend and I would find every means possible to paddle ourselves out to Egmont Key off St. Petersburg so we could admire the lighthouse and enjoy the adventure of uncovering abandoned army fort buildings and remnants. The island, lighthouse, and ruins were close to my heart and very difficult to leave when my husband's job moved us here.

Since moving here, we have spent many spare weekends traveling around the mid-Atlantic area to visit what few lighthouses are open to the public. Even before leaving Florida, we looked into the possibility of purchasing a lighthouse, or maybe building a replica for a house, but circumstances prevented us from doing so at that time. Instead, we comforted ourselves with the purchase of an historic Victorian home in NOVA to restore and make our family home.

I'm one of those people whose relatives send lighthouse knick-knacks to her for every gift-giving occasion. So when, shortly after we took the financial risk on our home, my brother-in-law read an article about the new NHLPA program, detailing the government's plans to excess lighthouses and turn over stewardship of the historic structures to non-profit organizations, he naturally sent it to me.

We were not financially in the position to take yet another risk. However, I knew if I didn't chase the dream and at least try, I'd always regret it and wonder 'what if'. So I held my breath and dove into the unfamiliar waters of creating a non-profit organization, rounding up some professionally successful friends as board members, and set off on the three year application expedition for the Lower Range Front Lighthouse. This has been a journey all about chasing a dream and participating as it becomes reality.

Since we acquired the Craighill Channel Lower Range Front Light, I have loved every minute of the weekends spent on our falling apart boat and on Millers Island, which I now think of as our second home.

We can't do this alone, however, and invite you to become a part of our organization as we work hard to see this entire project through to success. More and more lighthouses will be turned over to non-profits in order to restore them and open them to the public. Look at it as an opportunity to participate in something from the ground up. We acquired the lighthouse during the national pilot program, so we are truly at the start of something big.

One of the benefits in joining with us is that we are small and therefore are able to work personally with all members. As a member, you will have the opportunity to help out at the lighthouse before it is ready for public visits. Whatever your skill set or items to offer, just being a member is a great start. Our most pressing need currently is to build a dock at the lighthouse so further work can be done safely – no more acrobatic tricks necessary to get on the platform! I’ll admit, I'm terrified moving forward as I look at the daunting prospect of raising over half a million dollars to fund the restoration work, finding contractors, and negotiating contracts for the work to be done, etc. But the end prize will be worth all the current pain and fear, once the lighthouse is visited regularly and offers the opportunity to learn more about the history and heritage of the Chesapeake Bay and Baltimore ports to generations to come.

I invite you to become a participant in this dream, and maybe realize some of your own dreams in the process. I look forward to meeting the people in the community and future members of our ‘lighthouse home’. I also look forward to sharing this adventure with my own children, who can grow up with the memories of helping to make this lighthouse dream a reality. But I'm not selfish – I truly believe that the lighthouse belongs to the community and all members of the organization. So, please, jump in and join us!

Thank you!
Cathy Taylor
President, Historical Place Preservation

Many thanks to the RCRA for the race held on July 8, 2007! We're sorry you couldn't swing past the lighthouse due to the light winds, but we waved virtually to everyone out there!

Craighill Channel Upper Range Lights

Approximately ten years after the Lower Range lights were built, another pair of range lights was commissioned to also guide ships into Baltimore via the Craighill Channel from the shoreline. These sister lighthouses were smaller in scale and grandeur to the Lower Range, and contrary to the name, south of them. This is most likely due to the fact that ships entering Craighill Channel approach from the "lower" south area and use the "Lower Range" as guidance, whereas the Upper Range guides ships after making the turn into the Patapsco River.

The Upper Range Front Light: 
The Cut-off Channel Front Range Light Station is a two-story octagonal brick tower built on the former stone foundation of the 1822 North Point Lighthouse. The light is located in the top of the brick tower at an elevation of 15 feet above the water. It works in tandem with the rear range light guiding vessels into a cut-off channel into the Patapsco River inside the former location of Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse, cutting several miles off the route to Baltimore. The front range light is located within 350 feet off North Point; 1.3 miles southeast of the rear range light, on the north side of mouth of Patapsco River, near Fort Howard, Baltimore County, Maryland just off the VA Hospital property (can be seen from a path in the Fort Howard Park property). It is owned and managed by the U.S. Coast Guard in District 5.

The two-story 22-foot-tall 12-foot square brick tower with truncated corners, has a round arched door opening on the east (landward) side and similarly arched windows on the south facade and similar window niches on the north and west principal facades. The south window has been filled to look like the niches. The window was a two-over-two round head double-hung sash unit.

A keeper's quarters was built on shore in 1885, but abandoned in 1893 when a storm washed away the connecting bridge to the lighthouse. Rather than re-build the bridge, It was decided that the keeper would move into the less than twelve foot square lighthouse and use a skiff to get to shore.  Because of the cramped conditions, the lantern had to be moved to the outside of the tower. The lighthouse was fitted with a keeper's quarters and a boat. One report states the lighthouse was torn down in the late 1930s, and the present brick tower was built in 1938 to replace it. The present tower appears to be the original 1886 tower. The confusion is apparently due to differences given for the height of the tower over time. The height of the tower is given in the 1896 Light List as 18 feet and in the 1994 Light List as 22 feet.

The lighthouse embodies a distinctive design and method of construction that typified range light construction on the Chesapeake Bay during the second half of the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century.

The onshore dwellings for both the front and rear range were built according to a cottage plan, similar to those constructed at Cape Henry Light Station, Virginia. Workmen were transported from Baltimore and back by the steam launch Nettle. Both beacons were first lighted on January 15, 1886, even though all the work on the dwellings was not yet complete. All work was completed by the end of June. The "locomotive head-lights" were white, and the front range was 25 feet above the water. In addition, a "suitable" boat and boat landing with davits was fitted to the foundation pier. These changes were completed in October 1893. In 1894, an iron oil house with a capacity for 55 five-gallon cans was erected. In July 1902, a new summer kitchen was installed and minor repairs made. The light was supplied with electricity on November 28, 1929 and has been unmanned since.

The "locomotive" type light is now replaced with a DCB 24. The light characteristic is fixed red.

Both lights were fully automated in 1929 and are still active.


Upper Range Rear Light:
The Cut-off Channel Rear Range Light Station rests on four brick pier foundations, which support an iron exoskeleton square pyramid frame with an inner wooden tower built on a brick foundation. The wooden tower, which encloses a stairwell, is sheathed with corrugated sheet metal. The range light is located in the top of the wooden shaft at an elevation of 75 feet above the water. The rear range light is 1.3 miles northwest of the front range light. The rear range light is located onshore at the head of Old Road Bay, Pennwood Wharf, Jones Creek, Sparrows Point, north side of the mouth of Patapsco River, near Edgemore, Baltimore County, Maryland. Access to the property is via Sparrow Point Boulevard, within the Sparrows Point Bethlehem Steel Plant.

Work on the rear beacon and dwelling began in September 1885. It consisted of an "inner wooden shaft, covered with corrugated iron and supported by an iron skeleton frame, forming a frustum of a square pyramid, resting on stone and brick foundation piers." The dwellings of both the front and rear range were built onshore, according to a cottage plan, similar to those constructed at Cape Henry Light Station, Virginia. Workmen were transported from Baltimore and back by the steam launch Nettle. Both beacons were first lighted on January 15, 1886, even though all the work on the dwellings was not yet complete. All work was completed by the end of June. The "locomotive head-lights" were white, and the rear range was 65 feet above the water.

In 1890, brick walks were laid between the buildings and to the outside of the enclosure. A plank walk was laid from the tower to the water's edge, and other minor repairs were made. A plat dated June 12, 1925, shows a small dwelling with two porches located just east of the tower. A storehouse is located just northwest of the dwelling and a privy just northwest of the storehouse. These structures were demolished in the 1920s.