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In 1851, Light-House Board proposed construction
of a 40-foot screwpile marking the southern approach
to the Patapsco. The light would replace the aging
Bodkin Island station.
After considering and rejecting a proposed 60-foot
brick tower atop a screwpile, the Board settled on
a 42-foot cast iron screwpile with a fourth-order lens.
Murray and Hazelhurst of Baltimore won the contract
in 1854 with a bid of $30,340. The new lighthouse would
be the second screwpile in the bay, and the first water
station in Maryland.
As with all screwpiles, Seven Foot Knoll was battered by
storms and ice. One of the supporting piles was broken by ice in
1884. To protext the lighthouse from further damage, 150
piles in clusters of ten were placed around the lighthouse.
By 1894, the wooden piles had completely disappeared - casualties
of the Chesapeake ice. 790 tons of stone was placed at the base
to further reinforce the structure.
From 1858 to 1919, keepers lived with their families at the station.
Knollie Bolling, named after the lighthouse by her father,
Keeper James T. Bolling,
recalled that they kept livestock on the bottom platform
of the light. When bad weather washed out the animals' living
area, the livestock were brought inside the lighthouse until
the damage could be repaired. The family grew vegetables on the
walk surrounding the lighthouse, and would trade fish for fresh
produce with the local farmers.
On the night of August 20-21, 1933, a severe storm struck the
Atlantic Coast. Keeper Thomas J. Steinhise and his 20-year old son
Earl were riding out the storm at the lighthouse when they heard the
distress signal of the tug Point Breeze. The 164-ton tug
had taken on water and was foundering in the storm. Keeper Steinhise
took the station's 21-foot motorboat into the storm's 90 mile per hour winds
and fifteen foot waves. The motor was swamped by the waves, so
Steinhise maneuvered his small craft out to the sinking tug using
only an oar and rudder. The storm blew him in the direction of the
vessel. Steinhise rescued five men (a sixth died in the water), and
returned to the lighthouse. The return trip took an hour, as the
boat was now carrying extra weight and traveling against the storm.
For his bravery, Steinhise was awarded the Silver Lifesaving Medal.
When Steinhise died in 1949, all surviving members of the tug
came to pay their respects to the brave keeper.
In 1948 the lighthouse was automated. The interior of the lighthouse
was damaged by vandals, and the weather caused severe rusting.
Plans were made to move the lighthouse to the Mariner's Museum
in Newport News, VA. Those plans failed to materialize, and in 1988
the lighthouse was acquired by the city of Baltimore. Over a course of
two days, the lighthouse was carefully cut from its foundation, hoisted
by a huge derrick, and carefully barged to Pier 5 in Baltimore's
Inner Harbor. The most difficult part of the move was clearing the
Key Bridge, which required lowering the derrick by 30 feet - while
still dangling the 220-ton lighthouse. Descendents of Keeper Steinhise
organized the effort to restore the lighthouse - a project completed in
approximately one year.
Today the lighthouse is part of the Baltimore Maritime Museum and is
open to the public. The museum also includes the World War Two submarine
Torsk, the Coast Guard Cutter Taney, and the
Chesapeake lightship. Also nearby
is the USS Constellation and the Baltimore Aquarium.
Bay Beacons, Turbyville pp. 28-31
The Lighthouses of the Chesapeake, de Gast p. 91
Lighting the Bay: Tales of Chesapeake Lighthouses,
Vojtech pp. 18, 29, 74, 119-123, 148, 167-168
Mid-Atlantic Lighthouses, Roberts and Jones p. 61
Lighthouses of the Mid-Atlantic Coast, DeWire and Johnson p. 110
Flyer, Seven Foot Knoll Lighthouse
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