ST. MARY’S TODAY

LEONARDTOWN — The St. Mary’s Board of County Commissioners had some questions for St. Mary’s Department of Recreation and Parks (DRP) Director Phil Rollins regarding the role of the lighthouse keeper’s quarters next to the Piney Point Lighthouse at their February 24th meeting.

It was reported in ST. MARY’S TODAY two-weeks ago that the waterfront property is currently rented out to a well-connected lawyer for about $900 per month, about the cost of an apartment rental in Lexington Park.

St. Mary’s Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R. Golden Beach) said that he went to a lighthouse museum in North Carolina similar to the one at Piney Point.

"One thing that struck me is that they actually have their museum in the keepers quarters," Jarboe said, "Why isn’t our keeper’s quarters available for housing the museum?"

The Lighthouse Keeper’s quarters is a spacious home in a prime location. It is a well-maintained pre Civil-War era structure which has never been used for any part of the lighthouse museum. The site was known in early American history as the vacation place of Presidents, who used to travel down the Potomac River to stay at the old home.

About 50 feet away is the ramshackle shed that used to house the museum. The shed has been subject to frequent flooding, eventually leading to the destruction of the museum during Hurricane Isabel.

While the Museum was flooded over during the storm and the exhibits decimated, the possessions of the occupant of the keeper’s quarters were safe and dry, as the building is built at a suitable height to weather the flooding.

Rollins told the Commissioners that the site has served two main purposes in the past. He said that it is a generator of revenue for the county, and that having someone live near the lighthouse provided a certain measure of additional security for the facility.

"We felt that having someone live there was desirable," Rollins told the commissioners.

He then said that at some point in time, there were plans to convert the quarters into part of the museum since the security aspect will not be as big a concern in the future.

Rollins told the commissioners that the keeper’s quarters was advertised publicly, and that applicants were reviewed and interviewed before someone was selected to move in. He said that were the property to be vacated, the same public process would be necessary again.

Jarboe said that there are a number of people who travel to lighthouses on the east coast every year, and most of them have to board some kind of boat to get there since most are built on islands. He said the Piney Point lighthouse is "One of the very few you can drive to by car."