At the southern edge of Delaware's coast, two very different markers share one small piece of ground: a lighthouse that guided ships for nearly 120 years, and a stone that helped settle where Delaware ends.
The lighthouse
The Fenwick Island Lighthouse was completed in 1858 to help mariners avoid the Fenwick Shoals, which lie about six miles off the coast. It stands 87 feet tall and is the only brick, conical-type lighthouse ever built in the state. A third-order Fresnel lens of French manufacture was installed, and the light was first turned on on Aug. 1, 1859.
It operated without interruption for nearly 120 years, until the U.S. Coast Guard decommissioned it on Dec. 13, 1978.
Saved, and relit
A grassroots effort followed. Ownership of the property was transferred to the State of Delaware in 1981, and in 1982 the lighthouse was relit as an unofficial, private aid to navigation. The Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs manages the complex and leases it to the New Friends of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse. In 2025 the 1858 lightkeeper's house also came under the Division's care.
The stone
On the lighthouse grounds is the Transpeninsular Line marker, erected on April 26, 1751. It marks the eastern end of a line surveyed by John Watson and William Parsons of Pennsylvania and John Emory and Thomas Jones of Maryland. The line set the east–west boundary between Pennsylvania's three lower counties, now Delaware, and the colony of Maryland, and fixed the middle point of the peninsula 35 miles to the west.
It is one of the oldest boundary markers on the coast, and it explains a good deal about the shape of the state.
Seeing it
The lighthouse has been undergoing renovation in recent years, and its open days and hours are set by the Division and the Friends. Check their current information before you plan a visit.
Sources: Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, "History was made here: Fenwick Island Lighthouse" (history.delaware.gov), for the 1858 construction, the Fenwick Shoals, the 87-foot height, the only brick conical lighthouse in the state, the lens and the Aug. 1, 1859 lighting, the Dec. 13, 1978 decommissioning and the Transpeninsular Line marker; the Division's 2024 update and 2025 note for the 1981 state ownership, the 1982 relighting, the lease to the New Friends of the Fenwick Island Lighthouse and the lightkeeper's house; the U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office's Fenwick Island Lighthouse history. "One of the oldest boundary markers on the coast" is a general description, not a ranked claim. Delaware Beach Finds did not visit for this story.