This lighthouse at the Potomac River is representative of the first generation of Maryland lighthouses motivated by an increase in steamship travel. It replaced a lightship that had warned mariners about the dangerous shoals at Piney Point since 1821. Built by engineer and noted lighthouse designer Donahoo, the squat conical brick structure with a metal cupola top is thirty feet high and formerly housed a fifth-order Fresnel lens. It resembles other Donahoo lighthouses of the period at Cove Point (1828) in Calvert County, Concord Point (1827) in Harford County (CM78), and Turkey Point (1833) in Cecil County. He also built the adjacent brick keeper’s house, which was altered from one and a half to two stories in 1884. Both structures are now part of a county park.