White Shoal Lighthouse 

Light first exhibited February 6, 1855. White Shoal stood west of Newport News near the mouth of the Pagan River. It had a 20 foot square foundation on 5, 5" diameter iron screwpiles. The cottage was also 20" square, single story with an internal step ladder leading to the lantern room. The lantern was fitted with a steamship lens. The lighthouse suffered damage during the Civil War and was extinguished by Confederate raiding parties until June 1862 when it was relit. In September 1862, it was shutdown by the Lighthouse Board because of continuing rebel activity and because the war effort had moved to Northern Virginia. The light was again exhibited with a 6th order lens in 1865.

By 1869 it was listing to one side and declared unsafe. Two years later, the lighthouse was rebuilt as a hexagonal cottage with a fog bell and a sixth order Fresnel lens. The new little lighthouse served until 1934 when it an automated light replaced its beacon. The structure itself, however, outlasted all the other lighthouses on the James River, surviving until ice carried it away in January 1977.

Keepers

1. William Hines February 17, 1855 - January 11, 1860

2. Williams A. Hines January 17, 1860 - August 1861

3. Nathaniel Gray - Assistant October 4, 1860 - August 1861

4. Peter J. Huncke October 4, 1865 - July 9, 1870

5. John R. Duffy July 9, 1870- May 7, 1871

6. John K Shore March 7 1871 - May 10, 1872

7. George W. Thomas May 20 1872 - September 14, 1883

8. John. W. Bailey African American January 4,, 1884 - July 12, 1885

9. Robert M. Pitman July 8, 1885 - August 1889

10. M.F. Simonson August 16, 1889 - 1918

11. Charles S. Hudgins 1918 - June 1924