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PO Box 97
14200 Solomons Island Road
Solomons, MD 20688
P: 410-326-2042
F: 410-326-6691

Contact us by email

The Cove Point Lighthouse

| Rent | Visit | Improvements & Community Relations | History |


NOW OPEN -
After years of planning, fundraising, and preservation, the finishing touches have been put on the Cove Point Lighthouse Keeper’s home. It is now open as a weekly vacation rental and special event site.

Renting the Lighthouse

The 2 ½ story keeper’s duplex has been renovated from top to bottom. Each of the two rental units includes three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, one half bath, a washer and dryer, Wi-Fi, updated kitchens, central heat and air, a screened porch, and all the modern comforts and conveniences of home. Visitors will be able to rent the site for three, four, or seven day periods and can choose to rent one side of the duplex, or open up the doors dividing the two sides and use all six bedrooms. Many of the home’s original features have been retained and restored, including hard pine floors, cast iron heaters, deep window sills, doors, moldings, and eyebrow windows. The interior is decorated with a mix of old and new and includes photos from museum archives and locally built furniture, as well as a one of a kind table made from the reclaimed wood of the dismantled Cedar Point Lighthouse. The kitchen cabinets were handcrafted locally and the tile that was laid captures the character of a 1925 home. To add interest to the site, portions of the drywall have been removed to expose some of the features of the original 1 ½ story home, which were covered when it was enlarged in 1925.

The grounds are completely fenced with a private entrance and beach access. The site is an idyllic place to slow down and enjoy uninterrupted time with your family and friends. The grounds have been landscaped and designed to accommodate a casual wedding, reunion, or family event. Since this mixed-use lighthouse site is still a fully functioning site, in addition to being a vacation rental, it will continue to welcome the public during the summer season for tours of the grounds.

Located just over an hour from Washington, DC and Baltimore, Cove Point is easy to get to, but feels like it is a million miles away from it all. Proceeds from this beautiful rental site will support the Calvert Marine Museum and a lighthouse endowment set up for its continued care. Click here for an informational rental brochure to share with your friends.

Hi Season: April 1 - Sept. 30 One Side Both Sides
Week: Sunday-Sunday $2,100 $3,800
4 Night: Wednesday - Sunday $1,300 $2,300
3 Night: Sunday - Wednesday $900 $1,600
Low Season: Oct. 1 - March 31 One Side Both Sides
Week: Sunday - Sunday $1,300 $2,200
4 Night: Wednesday - Sunday $850 $1,500
3 Night: Sunday - Wednesday $550 $1,050

Check in is at 4 p.m. and check out is at 11 a.m.

Please call the Facility Rental Coordinator
at 410-474-5370 for more information.

Click on the images below to see a slideshow of the accomodations.

*Tax: An 11% tax will be added (6% MD and 5% Hotel Tax). Taxes are on the rental fee only, not on the insurance or the cleaning fee.

*Cleaning Fee: One side = $75; Both sides = $150. Fee applies despite length of stay.

*Insurance Fee: $75; This is a one time fee that insures renters for up to $3,000 in damage.

*Payment: 50% is due at the signing of the contract; final payment is due 30 days in advance.

****A restoration project of this magnitude could not have been possible without the support of many in this community. Grants from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, Preservation Maryland, Southern Maryland Heritage Area Consortium, and France Merrick Foundation laid the foundation of funding. The Calvert County Government, local community and supporters of the Calvert Marine Museum’s Annual Appeal and Bugeye Ball matched the grant funding. Tricon Construction, Thos. Somerville, Owens Corning, Ann Crain Art, Woodburn’s Custom Cabinets, HH Gregg, Jay Reid, USG, Tom Benson, 84 Lumber, MI Windows, and Patuxent Architects generously topped off the project by donating their time, skills, and products, to ensure this site is secured for another 200 years.

Visiting Cove Point Lighthouse for the Day

Cove Point is a beautiful site on the Chesapeake Bay where one can look back at the Calvert Cliffs, see across to the Eastern Shore, and observe the LNG (liquid natural gas) platform to the north. There is a small observation platform that lets one look over the fence for an unobstructed view of these sights, as well as maritime traffic going up and down the bay.

A museum interpreter is on site to greet visitors and answer questions. Interpretive wayside panels tell the story of the lighthouse, its keepers, and the Cove Point area.

Visitors can enter the base of the lighthouse tower and look up the spiral staircase. Since the light will continue to shine as a U.S. Coast Guard aid-to-navigation, the lantern room is off limits to the public.

Location

3500 Lighthouse Boulevard
Lusby, MD 20657

Hours

Access to the lighthouse grounds is provided at the following times:

June through August:
Open daily 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

May and September:
Weekends and Holidays 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Closed October through April

Improvements and Community Relations

Cove Point Light Station Commission provides an avenue of communications between the museum/county and area residents. We are also maintaining and expanding our relations with the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society, the Cove Point Heritage Land Trust, and Dominion Cove Point LNG. The Chesapeake Chapter of the USLHS has been active for years in the maintenance and preservation of area lighthouses. With nearly 800 members from around the Bay, they are a great source of support for Cove Point and many of them have been active in physically maintaining the site.

This effort is part of a program U.S. Coast Guard Cooperative project of the National Maritime Initiative by the U.S. Park Service.

To find out more about this effort, click here.


CLICK HERE to download an informational
brochure about Cove Point Lighthouse

Bugeye Times Articles on Cove Point Light

Make a Lasting Impression at the Cove Point Lighthouse
Winter 2001/2002

Titanium Mining in Calvert County: A Cove Point Neighbor
Winter 2001/2002

Cove Point Lighthouse at Last!
Winter 2000/2001

The Lighthouse is Opening
Winter 2000/2001

Order a Pizza & Preserve a Lighthouse!

Order an extra large 2-topping pizza for just $13.99 and Papa Johns will donate $1 of your order toward the preservation and restoration of the Cove Point Lighthouse. Just enter the code:

Lighthouse

when you order online and your donation is complete! When you’re ready for a hot and delicious pizza, please click below:

Ordaer a Pizza - Preserve a lighthouse!

History of Cove Point Light

"This is a stationary light on Cove Point, and elevated 40 feet above the tide. it is intended to lead vessels clear of the long low point on which it stands, close to which are seven fathoms of water. It also serves to guide vessels clear of Cedar Point, and such as are bound into the Patuxent River." - The American Pharos, or Light House Guide, Robert Mills, 1832

Cove Point Lighthouse from the air

Cove Point Lighthouse was built in 1828 to mark the shoal that extends outwards toward the shipping channel. A total of four acres was purchased at a cost of $300. Today only two acres remain (the other two were given to the liquid natural gas terminal for a safety zone). The light tower and the keeper's house were constructed of locally manufactured brick. The cost of the entire project was $2000.

In 1857 a fourth-order Fresnel lens was installed with a weight driven rotation mechanism. In 1928 the light was converted from kerosene to electricity. At that time, the beacon was visible for twelve nautical miles.

Cove Point Lighthouse todayThroughout the years the keeper's house was expanded from a simple dwelling for the keeper and his wife to a two-and-one-half-story duplex to house two keepers and their families. Around 1950, a smaller two-bedroom house was built for a third keeper and his family. An office building was added at the same time to house an emergency generator and radio communication equipment.

March 1986 marked the end of the keeper’s job, as the orders for automation were received. By August 16, 1986, Cove Point Lighthouse was officially automated. The new equipment included an automated lamp-changer in the lantern to change burned out lamps and a computer to monitor operations. The beacon is now controlled from Baltimore.

Ownership of the Cove Point Light Station was officially transferred from the U.S. Coast Guard to the Calvert County Government in September 2000. The Calvert Marine Museum began offering tours of the light station in 2002.

For a more comprehensive history of the Cove Point Light, read Cove Point Lighthouse: Sentinel on Calvert's Cliffs, by Richard J. Dodds, Curator of Maritime History, from the Bugeye Times, Winter 1997/1998

 

 



 

 

 

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