About

On March 3, 1853, Congress appropriated $250 for a small light on Stingray Point, but later that year, Inspector Alexander M. Pennock requested additional funds for the navigational aid.

Congress provided an additional $12,000 for Stingray Point Lighthouse on August 3, 1854, and the State of Virginia subsequently ceded control over a five-acre submarine site between the Rappahannock and Piankatank Rivers to the federal government. During 1858, work was carried out on the lighthouse, which consisted of a network of screw piles that supported a hexagonal, three-room, wooden dwelling, with a lantern room centered on its roof. A fixed white light was first exhibited from the station's sixth-order lens on January 1, 1859 by Samuel Cole, the station's first keeper, but just over a month later the characteristic of the light was changed to fixed red.

Stingray Point Lighthouse gradually faded from the memory of locals until Brent Halsey and Jimmy Rogers decided to construct a full-scale replica of the lighthouse at their Stingray Harbor Marina. To ensure accuracy, architect Randall Kipp used drawings of the lighthouse from the national archives and measurements of the original foundation to develop working drawings for the project. Northwind, Inc. was contracted to construct the lighthouse, with Atlantic Metals providing the pile foundation and Charles Yeager Designers & Fabricators was responsible for the lantern room.