New Point Comfort Lighthouse

Standing at the end of what was once the southernmost peninsula in Mathews County, now surrounded by water, the lighthouse marks the entrance to Mobjack Bay. Authorized by Congress in 1801, this 55-foot-high sandstone tower with its spiraling stone steps to the lighthouse cage, was built in 1805 by Elzy Burroughs, the first keeper. Except for a brief time during the Civil War, the light operated from 1806 until 1963. It is the third-oldest lighthouse still standing on Chesapeake Bay. A keeper's dwelling once stood next to the lighthouse on a five-acre tract.