Craighill Channel Upper Range Rear Light

This light was constructed in 1885 as part of a range light pair to mark the then newly excavated Craighill Cutoff Channel. A modest iron skeleton tower was erected, pyramidal in form with a wooden, corrugated iron-sheathed square shaft at its center to house the lamp and the access stairway. Its only architectural ornaments were a few windows to light the stairwell and a gallery to allow the outside of the light's window to be cleaned. A keeper's house was built nearby, connected to the light by a brick walk. The original light was a locomotive headlight displaying a fixed white light; this has since been replaced with a more conventional fixture displaying a red light.^[2]

The grounds were (and are) surrounded by private property, and in 1888 there was a dispute over access to the light. Other than that the light has passed a quiet life, punctuated only by automation in 1929 and the demolition of the keeper's house. It is still an active aid to navigation.

• "Historic Light Station Information and Photography: Maryland" (PDF). United States Coast Guard Historian's Office.
• Craighill Range Lighthouses, from the Chesapeake Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society
• Craighill Channel Upper Rear Lighthouse at lighthousefriends.org

• https://www.craighillrange.org
• Rowlett, Russ. "Lighthouses of the United States: Maryland". The Lighthouse Directory. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• Chesapeake Bay Lighthouse Project - Craighill Channel Range Lights
• Cut-off Channel Range Rear Light Station, Baltimore County, at Maryland Historical Trust