Recycled Lighthouses

Recycling and reusing things has always been part of the landscape for some people.

By Captain Ray
Published: March, 2010

Recycling and reusing things has always been part of the landscape for some people. I can remember, as a kid in New York City, picking up and retuning soda bottles for cash—two cents for the small ones and a nickel for the large ones. But ever since the first Earth Day in 1970, the idea of recycling has become more and more part of the public consciousness. We’ve learned to recycle our plastic bags at the grocery store, sort our household rubbish, recycle our automotive oil, and cities are even refurbishing and reusing old buildings.

And that’s what I want to talk about this month—reusing old buildings, specifically lighthouses. Typically, there were many other buildings constructed on a lighthouse site in addition to the actual light tower. Because the locations were often somewhat remote and the light needed to be tended continuously, housing for the keeper and his family was a necessity. In addition to the living quarters, the compound often included things like a stable (later a garage), a pump house and cistern for water storage, and various sheds and outbuildings. In sum, the lighthouse complex represented quite a little homestead. Along the coast just south of San Francisco, there are two wonderful examples of both the original compounds and their creative reuse.

At sunset on November 15, 1872, the lighthouse on Pigeon Point was activated. Pigeon Point, located approximately 50 miles south of San Francisco on the San Mateo coast, is named for the 175-foot clipper ship Carrier Pigeon that went aground near there on the evening of June 6, 1853, after spending most of the day in thick fog. The 115-foot tower is one of the two tallest on the west coast—the other is the Pt. Arena Light, 130 miles north of San Francisco.

In February 1875, another light was established about 25 miles to the north at Point Montara. The 30-foot steel tower on that site now was originally constructed for the Mayo Beach Light, on Cape Cod. In 1925, it was disassembled and reconstructed on south tip of Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay. In 1928, it moved again, this time to its present location at Pt. Montara.

Both Pigeon Point and Point Montara had housing incorporated for the keepers and their families. But, by the 1970s, the Coast Guard completed the automation of all lights. These two lights still send their beams across the water to aid mariners along this foggy, rock-bound coast, but light keepers are no longer needed. The buildings that once housed the light keepers and their families are now administered by the Golden Gate Council of Hostelling International and are available for overnight accommodations. The 30-foot tower at Point Montara is open to visitors; unfortunately, for safety reasons the 115-foot tower at Pigeon Point is closed to the public.

Within San Francisco Bay, there are several examples of recycling lighthouses in a different way. I’ll describe one of them this month and several more next month.

In 1890, a lighthouse was established on the north side of the entrance to the Oakland Estuary. The United States Lighthouse Service constructed the present building in 1903 to house two light keepers and their families. The U.S. Lighthouse Service was incorporated into the United States Coast Guard in 1939, and the keepers and their families moved ashore. The structure remained in place until 1965, when it was moved to its present location at the Embarcadero Cove Marina in Oakland. It is now called Quinn’s Lighthouse Restaurant and Pub, offering a classic pub upstairs and fine dining downstairs.

Ray Wichmann, is a US SAILING-certified Ocean Passagemaking Instructor, a US SAILING Instructor Trainer, and a member of US SAILING’s National Faculty. He holds a 100-Ton Master’s License, was a charter skipper in Hawai’i for 15 years, and has sailed on both coasts of the United States, in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Greece. He is presently employed as the Master Instructor at OCSC Sailing in the Berkeley Marina.