The Watts Island Light was a historic

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

located near Watts Island in the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

. It was the only lighthouse built by

John Donahoo John Donahoo (sometimes spelled Donahoe) (1786–1858) was a lighthouse builder active in Maryland for much of the first half of the nineteenth century. Little is known of Donahoo's life, but he appears to have been an active citizen in Havre de ...

outside of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

History

The island on which this light stood was originally called Little Watts Island, though by 1867 the light was referred to as if it were on the much larger Watts Island proper a short ways north. It was constructed in 1833 by

and is the only one of his thirteen lights outside of Maryland. The island was plagued with erosion, and by 1923 four of the original had disappeared. In that year the light was automated and the entire island of Little Watts, including the keeper's house, was sold to a Baltimore insurance executive, save a diameter plot centered on the tower. After the light was automated, Charles Hardenberg, a

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

-educated lawyer from a respected

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

on the islands until his death nearly 30 years later in 1937. In 1944 a winter storm demolished both the house and the tower, and now even the island itself is gone. The spot is now charted as "Watts Island Rocks" and is marked only with a lighted buoy.

References

Chesapeake Bay: Pocomoke and Tangier Sounds
NOAA Nautical Chart 12228 * {{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1833 Lighthouses in Virginia Buildings and structures in Accomack County, Virginia Lighthouses in the Chesapeake Bay