Here is an extract from the National Park Service (NPS) news release:

"THOMAS POINT SHOAL LIGHT STATION, Anne Arundel County, Maryland Thomas Point Shoal Light Station is the last unaltered screwpile, cottage-type lighthouse on its original foundation in the United States.  Screwpile foundation technology greatly improved the U.S. aids to navigation system in that it allowed lighthouses to be built in offshore locations that previously could only be marked by buoys or expensive lightships.  As many as 100 spider-like screwpile lighthouses were built throughout the Carolina sounds, the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, along the Gulf of Mexico, and one even at Maumee Bay on Lake Erie in Ohio.  Replacing an onshore station in 1875, the Thomas Point Shoal Light Station continues to serve as an active aid to navigation maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard."

The official designation by the Secretary of the Interior is the culmination of a two year effort. A key event was a meeting of the Landmarks Committee of the NPS Advisory Board on October 7, 1998, where the nomination was presented and unanimously approved.  The presentation was made by Kevin Foster, Chief of the NPS National Maritime Initiative (NMI). Also in attendance at the meeting were Ralph Eshelman, primary author of the nomination and President of the National Lighthouse Museum Steering Committee; Candace Clifford, consultant/lighthouse project coordinator for the NPS National Maritime Initiative; and myself, Henry Gonzalez, representing the Chapter and the USLHS.

National Historic Landmark status is the highest honor that can be bestowed on a historic property, and only 6 other lighthouses have received that honor to date: Boston Light (1964), Old Cape Henry (1964), Sandy Hook (1964), Block Island Southeast (1997), Cape Hatteras (1998), and Ponce de Leon Inlet (1998). Grosse Point was also officially designated on January 20th.

For more information and directions with maps to Thomas Point Lighthouse....