{"nrhp_refnum":"03000569","name":"Cape Charles Light Station","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Smith Island","address_restricted":false,"city":"Kiptopke","county":"Northampton County","state":"VA","lat":37.122932347000074,"lon":-75.90624204399995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-06-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Maritime History","Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A light station on Smith Island at the northern entrance to Chesapeake Bay, near Kiptopeke in Northampton County, Virginia. Its centerpiece is a cast-iron skeletal lighthouse tower built in 1894, with a brick oil house and brick workshop dating to about 1895.","why_significant":"The station is tied to federal efforts to build an integrated system of navigational aids for safe shipping in the Chesapeake Bay. Its 191-foot tower is described as the only onshore first-order cast-iron skeletal lighthouse in the United States, and the tallest skeletal tower in the country.","narrative":"Cape Charles Light Station sits on Smith Island, reachable only by boat, at the southern tip of the Delmarva peninsula where it marks the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. Its 1894 octagonal, pyramidal tower is a cast-iron skeleton on concrete piers, with a central cylinder holding the spiral stair. At 191 feet, it is the tallest skeletal lighthouse in the country and the only onshore first-order cast-iron skeletal tower. It replaced earlier brick towers from 1828 and 1864; erosion forced the move to a new site. The station also retains a brick oil house and brick workshop from about 1895, while the keepers' quarters were lost to fire in 2000. Three World War II steel observation towers stand nearby but are noncontributing. The property was listed for its role in the federal system of navigational aids serving a major commercial shipping corridor and for the rare engineering of its tower. The light was automated in 1963 and continues to operate.","period_of_significance":"1894-1952","architect_builder":"U.S. Lighthouse Board","architectural_style":"No Style","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The tower remains an active aid to navigation, automated in 1963. The keepers' quarters burned in July 2000, and the assistant keepers' homes were removed earlier. The brick oil house and workshop survive but are no longer Coast Guard property.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:02.624713-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_AK/03000569.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000569/c2527ac885-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000569/c2527ac885-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Acroterion","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_Charles_Light_and_towers_VA1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Acroterion</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cape_Charles_Light_and_towers_VA1.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75325135","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Charles_Lighthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5034646"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/northampton-county/cape-charles-light-station-03000569/"}