PINEY POINT, Md. –– The Friends of St. Clement’s Island and Piney Point Museums launched the 2025 Interlocking Building Bricks Lighthouse Challenge on Nov. 3, 2025, inviting community members to construct models honoring the Piney Point Lighthouse, the Potomac River’s oldest surviving beacon. Participants in two age categories — 12 and under, and 13 and older — will submit original creations for display and public voting at the Piney Point Lighthouse Museum and Historic Park through early January 2026.
Entries open Nov. 22, with drop-offs accepted daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the museum’s main building, 44720 Lighthouse Road, excluding Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 27. Models must use only interlocking building blocks of any brand or variety, measuring no larger than 12 inches wide, 12 inches deep and 20 inches high. Each requires a sturdy base like plywood or heavy cardboard to bear its weight, and no kits or non-brick components, including electronics, qualify. Registration remains free but mandatory via phone at 301-475-4200, extension 1832, or email to janet.cooper@stmaryscountymd.gov.
Once submitted, the lighthouses join a public exhibit running Nov. 29, 2025, to Jan. 4, 2026, coinciding with the museum’s extended holiday hours. Visitors receive one voting ticket per paid admission, with additional ballots available at five for $1 from the museum store, where proceeds fund programs. Pickups occur Jan. 5 to 10, 2026, during the same hours. Winners in each category earn a $25 Amazon gift card and title as the year’s top builder, with notifications sent Jan. 5.
The challenge ties into broader holiday programming at the site, including the free Family Holiday Open House on Nov. 30 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., featuring crafts, refreshments and lighthouse tours. The Evening Tides event, a ticketed gathering with live music and storytelling, also falls in December, alongside daily operations from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Jan. 5, 2026, except Christmas Eve and Day. These activities draw families to the 40-acre park, which blends maritime exhibits with trails overlooking the Potomac.
Karen Stone, manager of the St. Mary’s County Museum Division, highlighted the event’s community focus. “To really celebrate Piney Point Lighthouse during the holidays, we thought making this competition a yearly occurrence would be a fantastic way to get families and the community involved,” Stone said. “What’s even more fun is that everyone will be able to see their creations on display at the museum!”
The Museum Division, established by St. Mary’s County commissioners, oversees preservation and interpretation of key historic assets, including the Piney Point site alongside St. Clement’s Island Museum in Colton Point and the Old Jail Museum in Leonardtown. These venues collectively safeguard artifacts from the county’s founding in 1634 as Maryland’s first capital through its naval and fishing eras. The Friends group, a nonprofit formed to bolster these efforts, channels store sales and donations toward educational outreach, special exhibits and maintenance, such as recent upgrades to the lighthouse’s interpretive paths.
Piney Point Lighthouse itself anchors the challenge’s theme. Constructed in 1836 by builder John Donahoo, the 35-foot brick tower rose on a bluff 14 miles upriver from the Chesapeake Bay to guide vessels past shoals that had claimed ships since colonial times. A lightship marked the hazards from 1821 until the structure’s completion, which featured an initial Argand lamp upgraded to a fourth-order Fresnel lens in 1855 for brighter reach. Keepers added a fog bell tower in 1880, and the station earned the nickname “Lighthouse of Presidents” for visits by figures like Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II inspections of nearby radar installations.
Decommissioned by the Coast Guard in 1964 amid automated aids’ rise, the lighthouse transferred to county ownership in 1980 after federal surplus. Today, it forms the park’s centerpiece, with climbable stairs offering Potomac views and exhibits on Coast Guard history, including a restored 1922 rescue boat. The site’s role in Southern Maryland’s maritime legacy resonates locally, where watermen and naval personnel from Patuxent River Naval Air Station trace livelihoods to such navigation aids. St. Mary’s County, with its 115,000 residents spread across rural hamlets and Lexington Park’s growth, sees the museum attract 20,000 visitors yearly, many during holidays when families seek indoor-outdoor pursuits amid winter’s shorter days.
This inaugural challenge builds on the division’s family-oriented initiatives, like summer archaeology digs at St. Clement’s or jailhouse ghost tours, to foster hands-on history. In a region where 25 percent of households include children under 18, such events counter seasonal slowdowns in outdoor recreation while promoting STEM skills through brick-building. Past holiday draws, including decorated keeper’s quarters and waterfront caroling, have boosted attendance by 30 percent in December, per division records.
For St. Mary’s families juggling school breaks and work, the contest offers low-barrier creativity; participants might draw from the lighthouse’s whitewashed cone or its black lantern room, adapting scales for tabletop drama. Broader county festivities complement it, from Leonardtown’s waterfront lights parade to Calvert’s artisan markets, creating a circuit of free or low-cost cheer. The museum closes the holiday run Jan. 5, but year-round access resumes with spring wildflower hikes.
Further details on the challenge, events or the lighthouse appear on the museum’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/1836Light or by calling 301-994-1471. The park operates seasonally, with full schedules at the county’s recreation site.
