Mispillion Lighthouse, Milford, Delaware. watercolor on 140lb paper. The Mispillion Lighthouse has a rich and eventful history tied to Delaware's maritime heritage. Congress authorized $1,500 for the construction of the original Mispillion River Lighthouse on March 3, 1831, intended to help guide vessels to the inland port of Milford, where over the years more than 400 ships — mostly sloops and two- and three-masted schooners — were built and christened. The lighthouse was deactivated in 1859 and sold for $135, then relocated to Walnut Street in Milford. The second Mispillion Lighthouse, built in 1873, was a 65-foot square wood tower rising from one corner of a two-story Gothic-style wood keeper's house. It is the sole surviving wood-frame lighthouse in Delaware and one of only three Delaware Bay lighthouses still standing on Delaware soil. It served until 1929, when it was deactivated and replaced by a steel skeleton tower. Over many years of private ownership and neglect, it fell into extreme disrepair and was considered by Lighthouse Digest magazine to be "America's Most Endangered Lighthouse." After a lightning-sparked fire destroyed most of the tower, the remains were sold in 2002, and a replica was rebuilt at Shipcarpenter Square in Lewes, Delaware, in 2004 using salvaged materials and the original plans.
