Pooles Island Light

Pooles Island was originally named Powell's Island by John Smith, but over the years the name was changed, possibly to reflect the numerous springs and pools on the island. The island was famed in the 18th and 19th centuries for its fertility, particularly for the peaches raised there in the 1880s and '90s. As it lies near the center of the bay near the mouth of the Gunpowder River, it was one of the first places in the area considered for a lighthouse, and in 1824 Congress appropriated $5,000 for construction of a light. John Donahoo and Simon Frieze won the contract to build it, the first of many lights constructed by Donahoo. The roughly constructed granite tower and keeper's house were joined three years later by a fog bell tower, the first in the state. In 1857 the original system of Argand lamps and reflectors was replaced by a fourth order Fresnel lens.{{cite web|url=https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/NR_PDFs/NR-1183.pdf |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: Pooles Island Light|date=November 1993|accessdate=2016-01-01 |author=W. Patrick Giglio |publisher=Maryland Historical Trust}}

As part of the establishment of Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1917, Pooles Island was purchased by the federal government, and the light station turned over to the Army. The light was automated the following year. In 1939, it was decommissioned, and the surrounding structures were torn down. In 1927, a new black skeleton tower attached to a black caisson structure was built out in the water off the southern end of Pooles island as Pooles Island Bar Light. It was placed in operation in November 1927 and remains an active aid to navigation.

In 1994, the Army submitted a proposal to add the lighthouse to the National Register of Historic Places, with the intent to restore it to service as a private navigational aid. As part of this effort a thorough renovation effort was made to protect and stabilize the structure. It was added to the Register on February 19, 1997 as Pooles Island Lighthouse.

Pooles Island Light is "off limits to the general public because the island was used for bombing and shelling practice from 1918 through the early 1960s. There are many unexploded bombs and shells all over the island."{{cite web|url=http://www.cheslights.org/heritage/pooles.htm|title=Pooles Island Light|work=Our Heritage|publisher=Chesapeake Chapter, United States Lighthouse Society|accessdate=May 1, 2012}}

Pooles Island Lighthouse is in operation after 72 years of deactivation. Army officials at Aberdeen Proving Ground re-lit the beacon with fanfare as part of Armed Forces Day celebrations May 21, 2011.{{cite news|url=https://www.army.mil/article/56920/Aberdeen_Proving_Ground_relights_lighthouse_after_72_years/|title=Aberdeen Proving Ground relights lighthouse after 72 years|date=May 22, 2011|author=APG Public Affairs Office|publisher=U.S. Army|access-date=May 1, 2012}}{{cite news|url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/bs-md-ha-lighthouse-beacon-20110905,0,7652769.story?track=rss|title=Pooles Island Lighthouse shines again and symbolizes growth at APG|work=The Baltimore Sun|author=Mary Gail Hare|date=September 5, 2011|accessdate=May 1, 2012}}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

The Harford County Chamber of Commerce sponsored a dinner cruise for officials and community members to see the historic relighting ceremony. More than 300 spectators watched the show from the Spirit of Baltimore as part of the cruise sponsored by the Harford County Chamber of Commerce, Office of Economic Development, and the Army Alliance in cooperation with Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Various sources spell (or misspell) the name as Pools Island, Poole's Island, or Pool's Island. For example, nightbeacon.com's "Listing of United States Lighthouses" records this as "Pooles Island (Pools Island)", with one of the alternate spellings in parentheses {{cite web|url=http://www.nightbeacon.com/lighthouseinformation/listingofuslighthousespage1.htm |title=Listing of United States Lighthouses |publisher=nightbeacon.com |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061117213538/http://www.nightbeacon.com/lighthouseinformation/listingofuslighthousespage1.htm |archivedate=November 17, 2006 }} Lighthousedepot.com calls it the "Poole's Island Light".{{cite web|url=http://shop.lighthousedepot.com/|title=Shop Lighthouse Depot|publisher=Lighthouse Depot|accessdate=May 1, 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120506064812/http://shop.lighthousedepot.com/|archivedate=May 6, 2012}} In Lafayette in America (Chicago, 1975), historian Louis Gottschalk writes, "The next day Nicholson's fleet anchored at Pool's Island, about fifteen miles out in the bay, and they arrived at Annapolis two days later...."{{cite web|url=http://xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/layfmv.htm|title=The 225th Anniversary of Lafayette's First Visit to Mount Vernon|date=March 31, 2006 |publisher=Xenophon Group|accessdate=May 1, 2012}} These variant spellings, though perhaps erroneous, have been in use for a long time. For example, early colonist Augustine Herrman kept a journal including an entry for Friday, October 3, 1659 which begins: "Rowed forward all day. Pass the eastern side of Pools Island near the western shore of Sassafracx River."{{cite web |url=http://www.chesapeakearchaeology.org/AnneGrulich/HTML%20Files/HermansJourney.htm |title=The Mettle of Mobility: Travel in the Colonial Chesapeake as Exhibited by Metal Artifacts |author=Anne Dowling Grulich|publisher=Chesapeake Archaeology |accessdate=May 1, 2012}}

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{{Reflist|33em}}

• [http://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=414 Pooles Island Lighthouse] - from Lighthousefriends.com
• [http://www.cheslights.org/heritage/pooles.htm Pooles Island Light] and [https://cheslights.org/pooles-island-bar-light/ Pooles Island Bar Light] from Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society website, CHESLIGHTS.org
• {{cite book

|last= de Gast

|first= Robert

|title= The Lighthouses of the Chesapeake

|url= https://archive.org/details/lighthousesofche0000dega

|url-access= registration

|year= 1973

|publisher= Johns Hopkins University Press| pages = [https://archive.org/details/lighthousesofche0000dega/page/110 110–113]|isbn= 9780801815485

}}

• {{cite news|url=http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/20-8/20-8-5.pdf|title=Pooles Island Lighthouse Stabilization Project|work=Cultural Resource Management|author=Teresa Kaltenbacher|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=May 1, 2012|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227062049/http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/20-8/20-8-5.pdf|archivedate=February 27, 2012}}
• [http://cblights.com/lights/poolesisland.html Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse Project - Pooles Island Light]
• {{MHT url|id=1185|title=Pooles Island Lighthouse, Harford County}}, including photo dated 1990, at Maryland Historical Trust
• {{cite rowlett|md}}

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Category:Lighthouses completed in 1825

Category:Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland

Category:Transportation buildings and structures in Harford County, Maryland

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Harford County, Maryland