Cobb Island History
We will be putting information about some of the interesting history of Cobb Island here in the near future. Please check back soon.
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Cobb Island History
We will be putting information about some of the interesting history of Cobb Island here in the near future. Please check back soon.
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The Cobb Island Citizens
Association Celebrates 80 Years of Service to the Community in 2007
For over 80 years, the Cobb Island Citizens Association has made a difference in the quality of life on Cobb Island by providing leadership for active, dedicated members to contribute towards the civic good of the Island and its residents. Open to all property owners on Cobb Island, the Association is a civic and social organization that strives to improve the quality of life on Cobb Island.
The Cobb Island Citizens Association, founded in 1927 on John H. Kitchen's side porch, is believed to be the oldest such civic organization in the state. Kitchen was elected the first president of the Association. During its first summer, the Association met in a grove of trees near Bridge Drive. In 1928, Charles Elgin gave the Association a wooded lot next to his store, on which it built a community hall using volunteers for most of the work, it cost a little less than $1,100. This original structure stands today at 13201 Main Street. The building, somewhat enlarged, and much improved, is still in use over 75 years later. It was originally built in pavilion style, with screened windows that had large shutters hinged at the top, to be let down in bad weather and during the winter. It was used as a dance hall every Saturday night for Association-sponsored dances. The community hall was lighted by a large gasoline lantern with mantles that had to be replaced periodically, and tanks that had to be kept pumped up, but everyone agreed that the lamps' bright light was worth the trouble.
During the 1920's and 1930's, the Citizens Association played a leading role in the improvement of Cobb Island as a residential. In its second year, 1928, it lead a campaign to lay the first telephone line to the Island. The first telephone was installed at Lou & Ethel Price's house near the old bridge (near Bridge Drive), and until more telephones were installed, everyone on the Island was welcome to use the Price's telephone. Every summer ended with the Citizens Association’s Field Day over the Labor Day weekend. This was the season's major event. In 1939, the Maryland Electric Cooperative began to supply electricity to the Island. The Community Hall was one of the first buildings on the Island to be wired.
In 1932, the Association was active in the efforts to ensure the building of a new one-lane drawbridge (just below the present-day bridge) to replace the deteriorating low timber bridge which connected Chigger City to the west end of the Island. In the early 1960s, through hard work, perseverance, and organized efforts, the Association successfully worked with Charles County and State of Maryland to replace the one-lane drawbridge with a permanent, high bridge, which opened in 1964.
The Citizens Association was also active in working with the Charles County to install the present sewer system in the late 1980s, and many other local improvements, such as the Cobb Island Community Playground, which opened in 1999. One of the Association's major events is the annual Cobb Island Days Festival celebration of arts, music, food, and fun, usually held in June.
Other activities that have been sponsored by the Association include community dinners and breakfasts; summer programs for children, a bimonthly newsletter, scholarships for college-bound students, after-school study at the Citizens Hall, boating safety classes, wildlife and environmental programs, meetings with elected officials, childrens library, arts & crafts, its popular Spaghetti Dinner Nights, and children's holiday party. The Association also sponsors an annual Mosquito Control Program, funded through resident donations, the Island Beautification Program, which maintains the grassy median and garden plantings at the entrance to the Island along Cobb Island Road. Other sponsored projects have included the annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup, the American Cancer Society 'Relay for Life', Cobb Island Crime Watch/Citizens on Patrol; the Charles County Arts Festival, sponsorship of exercise and other classes, support for meetings of other social/self-help groups such as Alcoholicas Anonymous, cancer survivors, social playtime for new mothers and their infants, and a meeting space for a variety of local groups and private functions..
The Cobb Island Citizens Association continues to advance the civic welfare and provide a safe and involved community for its residents and visitors to the area, as it has done for over 80 years.
A ceremony celebrating the achievement of the Association will be included as part of the Cobb Island Days Festival on June 16, 2007. More information about the event will be posted on the Association's website at http://cobb-cica.org.
The Cobb Island
Volunteer Fire Department & EMS
Cobb Island is served by a team of dedicated volunteer fire fighters, emergency
medical technicians, and support personnel. Serving their friends and neighbors
when needed in life-and-death situations, these unpaid volunteers have been
serving the Cobb Island region since for almost 60 years.
Cobb Island's Volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1946.
Mr. J. Carl Hill was the first President, and there were 15 members of the
fire
department. Today, the Cobb Island Volunteer Fire/EMS Department serves an
ever growing community. Membership has grown to over 70 members.
Mr. & Mrs. John E. (Jack and Mary) Simms donated the first property to build
the Fire House in the center of the Island. Recently acquired land across from
the site of the current Fire House will allow for future expansion of the Fire/EMS
Department on Cobb Island, as well as allow changes to be made to the existing
building.
The Cobb Point Bar Lighthouse
Approximately one mile off the southeastern tip of Cobb Island, at the end of
a long, underwater sandbar at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Wicomico
River, stands a large platform with a lighted tower, surrounded by two piles
of rip-rap rocks. This structure, known as "the Lighthouse" to locals, has a
very interesting history.
Originally know as "Cob" Point Bar, the lighthouse was located at the mouth
of the Wicomico River, where is joins the wide Potomac River. The U.S. Lighthouse
Board, in its 1885 annual report, recommended building a lighthouse on the tip
of Cobb Point Bar because so many sailing vessels entered and left the Wicomico
River after dark. It's justification read as follows: "Three steamboat
lines run regularly into the Wicomico from the Potomac River, doing a heavy
carrying
trade of oysters, tobacco, and other productions. As many as 350 vessels have
anchored at one time inside the bar. This is also a good harbor for refuge
in
storms and from drifting ice. The mouth of the river is, however, so nearly
closed by the sandbars projecting from opposite sides that a vessel endeavoring
to avoid one is in danger of being stranded upon the other. Hence sailing vessels
rarely attempt to leave or enter at night. In 1883 the steamer Sue, in going
out, by mistake of one minute in the time of running, ran upon the bar a Cob
Point. The light on Blakistone's Island is nearly 5 miles distant from this
bar and affords no guide to this location."
An appropriation of $15,000 was requested. It took more than 4 years to get
the money and begin construction (the final cost was not$15,000, but over
$25,000). Construction on the Cobb Point Bar lighthouse began on November 1, 1889 and
the 4th order fresnel lenses were placed in the cupola. The lighthouse's big
kerosene lamps were lit for the first time on Christmas Day, 1889. The lighthouse
was built upon a platform supported by 5 screw pilings, and looked like a small
cottage with a square cupola on its roof. The house was surrounded by a railed
widows walk. Its fog bell was sounded by machinery every 15 seconds. The Cobb
Point Bar lighthouse was similar to that of the Tangier Sound Lighthouse, located
on the Eastern Shore.
The Cobb Point Bar Lighthouse house burned in late 1939. The lighthouse
was so badly damaged that the house structure was demolished a year later.
An
automated bell and automatic light was placed upon the platform in 1940. The
stone rocks located at the base of the structure protect the platform
from damaging waves. This prime fishing area is known to locals
as "the Rock Pile" and "Lighthouse Lumps".