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Seven Foot Knoll Light

(moved to) Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MD cir. 1855
Seven Foot Knoll Light This is the second screwpile light built on the Bay out of over 40 and the first built in Maryland. Unlike most of the others, however, it is built entirely of iron and its circular design is unique among the Bay's screwpiles. Seven Foot Knolls is at the mouth of the Patapsco River. Though ice flows threatened the structure on several occasions the damage was repaired and several shoring projects undertaken throughout the years. In 1933 one of its keepers, Thomas Steinhise, received a Congressional medal for heroism after braving a storm in his small skiff to single-handedly rescue the crew of a foundering tugboat. (This same storm severed the peninsula on which New Point Comfort Light stood.) The light was automated 1848 and by the 1980s was badly damaged by corrosion, and vandalism. In 1988 ownership was transferred to the city of Baltimore and it was moved by barge to Pier 5 at Inner Harbor. It is now open to the public along with the Lightship Chesapeake, U.S. Coast Guard cutter Taney, WWII submarine USS Torsk, and the 1855 USS Constellation.


Location: Baltimore Inner Harbor 39.2836°N 76.6054°W
Access: See Historic Ships in Baltimore
Date Built: Commissioned 1855
Type of Structure: Screw-pile with cylindrical iron dwelling / tower
Height: 40 feet above mean high water
Characteristics: Inactive
Foghorn: Yes
Builder: Murray and Hazelhurst of Baltimore, MD
Appropriation: $27,000
Status: Inactive, moved to a museum setting
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