The hazardous shoals off the coast at Maryland's Piney Point, located about 14 miles from the Point Lookout lighthouse, had been marked by a lightship since 1821. The Piney Point Lighthouse, built in 1836, was the first of 11 lighthouses to be built along the Potomac River. Together with the Jones Point and Fort Washington lighthouses, Piney Point is among these three original lighthouses to remain standing today.
   The shore-based Piney Point Lighthouse tower is 35 feet tall, and at the base, the brick tower is four feet thick. The original lighting fixture, made up of 10 lamps, was replaced in 1855 by a 5th-order Fresnel lens. The lens was removed and the light station decommissioned in 1964. By 1980, the U.S. Coast Guard transferred ownership to the Saint Mary's County Maryland Department of Recreation and Parks.
   Over the years, the lighthouse deteriorated, and after the county took over ownership, preservations efforts aided in restoration and renovation of both the lighthouse and outbuildings. In 2003, after a Coast Guard cottage near the lighthouse that housed the Piney Point Lighthouse Museum was damaged by Hurricane Isabel, the museum was moved to a two-story building on higher ground.
   The Piney Point Lighthouse Museum contains exhibits about the lighthouse, the U.S. Coast Guard, the history of the area as a presidential retreat and the interesting tale of the Black Panther German submarine that was sunk in the waters of the Potomac. This German U-boat is still largely intact, and is now a historical shipwreck dive preserve.

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