The Wade Point Lighthouse, once located on the west side of the Pasquotank River on the northeastern part of Albemarle Sound, functioned as a sentinel for almost 100 years — from 1859 to 1955. The screw-pile lighthouse was a 26-foot-square building that rested on five steel pilings, and the floor was situated about 12 feet above the water’s surface.
The original lighthouse was twice destroyed by Confederate guerillas in the summer of 1863 during the Civil War. They destroyed the structure and stole any portable objects they considered beneficial. The lighthouse was not rebuilt until after the Civil War, in approximately 1867.
Courtesy of Wade Point, NC
Several times throughout the years, the Wade Point Lighthouse was subjected to heavy pressure from ice, requiring numerous repairs. In January 1879, ice broke the casting lugs that secured the lower ends of three of the lighthouse’s tension braces. They had to be repaired before the next upcoming winter.
Around 1898, major deterioration had taken its course on the lighthouse, and restoration began. After the repairs were completed, the lighthouse, except for the pile foundation, was dismantled and removed. The lighthouse’s lens, which did not work, was not built into the new lighthouse but was kept and used elsewhere. The fog bell, striking apparatus, boat hoisters, supplies, keeper’s outfit, and furniture were removed to a new lighthouse structure; and a new lens apparatus was placed in position.
The new beacon was lit for the first time on April 17, 1899. The new structure included a two-story square wooden dwelling with a gable roof. The building rested on a substructure consisting of five wooden piles, each covered by a fitted, cast-iron sleeve column. The piles — braced and tied together by beams, struts and tie rods — supported an iron lantern with a copper roof 39 feet above mean high-water level.
Courtesy of Suffolk River Heritage Collection
The lighthouse served mariners navigating the Pasquotank River until 1955 when it was decommissioned by the U.S. Coast Guard and sold to Elijah Tate of Coinjock for $1. The structure was destroyed when it slipped off the barge into the Pasquotank River during a storm. Today, the pilings are still visible off Camden Point.
Tate also acquired the screw-pile lighthouses at Roanoke Marshes and the Roanoke River. Tate’s efforts to bring the Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse and Wade Point Lighthouse ashore were unsuccessful, so he sold the Roanoke River Lighthouse to a friend. In 2007, the Edenton Historical Commission purchased the Roanoke River Lighthouse for $225,000; and it has since been restored and opened to the public in the Edenton harbor.
If you visit the Camden Heritage Museum, Alex Leary, historian and curator, notes that you can view a Wade Point Lighthouse model built by Willard Forbes. Forbes’ grandfather, Joseph Forbes Mercer, was the lighthouse keeper at Wade Point from 1905-13. Forbes built the model with original lumber salvaged from the lighthouse after it was destroyed.
Come visit the Museum of the Albemarle and learn more about the history of the Albemarle region. We’re free and open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.