Fort Carroll Maryland
Harbour Lights #371

Fort Carroll received its name, from the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll (1737-1832). Interestingly, the construction superintendent was brevet-colonel Robert E. Lee of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The lighthouse stands on a man-made, three and a half acre, hexagonal shaped island near the mouth of the Patapsco River, adjacent to the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Britain’s invasion during the War of 1812 rallied the citizens of Baltimore to petition the United States Senate to build a fort in the shallow water of Soller’s Point Flats to protect the city.

In 1847, the United States War Department began the project. The crews, under Lee’s leadership, began to drive pilings into the water so the foundation could be built. Work was slow on the giant fortress, there were difficulties getting enough building materials for such a large structure. Lee eventually moved on to become the Superintendent of West Point.

In 1853, a lighthouse was added atop the fort’s parapets and in 1854 a Sixth Order Fresnel lens was installed. The keeper and his family were the first permanent residents of the island. The light had a duel purpose, to warn mariners of the fort’s construction and to mark the turn from Brewerton Channel to the Fort McHenry Channel leading in and out of the Baltimore Harbor. In1875, the light tower was moved to the southwest corner with a new Keeper’s dwelling built in 1888. The retrofitting of more modern guns was made at the time of the Spanish American War; once again the lighthouse tower was moved, this time, to the northwest corner. In 1900, a new square wood tower with a Fifth Order Fresnel with its bell signal was built at a more central location on the west wall.

The Lighthouse was eventually automated in 1920, one year before the army abandoned the fort.