Old Plantation Flats Light, Chesapeake Bay, Cape Charles, Virginia
Screwpile style lighthouse, with rectangular structure, built in 1886.
OLD PLANTATION FLATS LIGHT
Lighthouse Name: Old Plantation Flats Light
Location: Entrance to Old Plantation Creek; nearest Town/City is Cape Charles, VA
Date Built: 1886
Type of Structure: White rectangular cottage style house with tower on roof on a screw pile with an unusual foundation construction with a combination of screw pile and concrete pylons
Height:
Characteristics:
Lens: Fifth order Fresnel lens
Foghorn:
Appropriation: $25,000
Status: No longer standing
Historical Information:
- Fifth order Fresnel lens destroyed by ice flows in 1893 and replaced a month later with a new fifth order Fresnel lens.
- Lighthouse was once again damaged by ice flows in 1918 and was later reinforced with concrete at an additional cost of $37,140.
- Deactivated and dismantled in 1962 and replaced with an automated steel skeleton 39 feet tower with a 4 second flash was built on the original foundation.
- A replica of this lighthouse with a reproduction of a fourth order Fresnel lens was built in 2004 by the Bay Creek Resort & Club in Cape Charles; also has installed a 1942 bronze fog bell originally used on a bell buoy.
- Museum contains U.S. Lighthouse Service artifacts and keepers’ implement on display.
The above was researched and drafted by Kitty Price, a Chesapeake Chapter of the U.S. Light House Society volunteer.