{"nrhp_refnum":"02001434","name":"Wolf Trap Light Station","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"SE of New Point Comfort","address_restricted":false,"city":"Poquoson East","county":"Mathews County","state":"VA","lat":37.23030119300006,"lon":-76.18966966999994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2002-12-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Maritime History","Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A pneumatic caisson lighthouse built in 1894 in the Chesapeake Bay off Mathews County, Virginia, in about 16 feet of water at the east end of Wolf Trap Spit. It has a cast-iron cylinder on a wooden caisson, with an octagonal two-story brick dwelling and a square tower carrying the lantern.","why_significant":"The station is significant for its link to federal efforts to build a system of navigational aids for safe shipping in the Chesapeake Bay. It also embodies the caisson construction method typical of Chesapeake lighthouses in the later nineteenth century. It is one of only eleven pneumatic caisson lighthouses built in the United States, seven of them in the Bay.","narrative":"Wolf Trap Light Station is an offshore lighthouse in the Chesapeake Bay, in Mathews County, Virginia, standing in about 16 feet of water on the east end of Wolf Trap Spit. Completed in 1894, it rests on a wooden caisson sunk 12 feet into the bottom, topped by a 30-foot cast-iron cylinder filled with concrete. Above it sits an octagonal two-story brick dwelling with a square tower and a cast-iron lantern. Earlier markers at the shoal included lightships and a screw pile lighthouse built in 1870, which ice destroyed in 1893. The present structure replaced it. The station matters for its role in the federal system of navigational aids serving a major commercial corridor, and as an example of pneumatic caisson construction, a method used for only eleven lighthouses in the United States, seven of them in the Chesapeake Bay. It was automated in 1971, remains an active navigation aid under Coast Guard ownership, and is reached only by boat.","period_of_significance":"1894-1952","architect_builder":"U.S. Lighthouse Board","architectural_style":"No Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Still an active aid to navigation owned by the U.S. Coast Guard; it was automated in 1971 and overhauled in 1991 and 1996. Access is by boat.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.461081-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_AK/02001434.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02001434/48a6dfce1b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/02001434/48a6dfce1b-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"United States Coast Guard","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USCGwolftraplight1960.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">United States Coast Guard</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USCGwolftraplight1960.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75325105","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Trap_Light","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8029912"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/mathews-county/wolf-trap-light-station-02001434/"}