Polishing the Pearl of the Chesapeake

"What we want to do is restore it to its turn-of-the-century -- turn of the past century, 1900 -- look," Gonzalez said.

A tour of the lighthouse recently showed that the lighthouse still has far to go. The small kitchen, sitting room and bedroom on its lower level are bare walls and floors, filled with construction supplies and equipment.

Some of the most notable upgrades have been new windows and doors donated by Jeld-Wen, a window and door company in Klamath Falls, Ore., that selected the Thomas Point house as one of two lighthouses to help restore. The doors are designed to look like wood, but they are molded fiberglass, to withstand the weather better.

"You want something that looks like it was," said Sherri Marsh Johns, an architectural historian who volunteers for the Lighthouse Society. "But we're in a harsh environment."

The restoration will be done in part by volunteer labor, Gonzalez said, and in part by contractors paid with grants and private donations. It's expected to cost $500,000, and the interiors will be completed in 2009.

In the meantime, the Annapolis Maritime Museum is hoping to begin running tours out to the lighthouse in July. These tours are planned to begin at the museum, at 723 Second St. in the Eastport neighborhood of Annapolis, and include a one-hour guided tour and a 30-minute boat ride to the lighthouse and back.

Jeff Holland, the museum's director, said the tours would be run only three times a day on weekends from July to October. More information about the tours, he said, is available at http://www.chesapeakelights.com.

"To be on-site where that structure has been since 1875 is a thrill," Holland said. He called the lighthouse "the iconic image of the Chesapeake Bay. . . . It just says: 'This is the bay. You're here.' "

The same kind of thrill came over Gonzalez, when his tour of the lighthouse reached the "lantern gallery," a small perch outside the tower that houses the now-electric light. The light, now run off solar panels, is still operated by the Coast Guard.

The view from Gonzalez's perch included the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the north and Tilghman Island to the south, with cargo ships and sailboats in between.

"I feel it right now. I mean, just standing here, I can transport myself to feel like a keeper did in the 1890s," he said. "It's that sense of awe, sense of responsibility, that you feel: 'Hey, I'm out here taking care of the people on the bay.' "