Restoring a Beacon

By Kathleen Ok-Soo Ricahrds
 

Rising 115 feet atop a windswept bluff on the Central Coast of California, about an hour south of San Francisco, Pigeon Point Lighthouse at Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park stands like a sentinel above the Pacific Ocean. For more than 150 years, the lighthouse — one of the tallest on the West Coast — has safely guided mariners past these rocky shores to San Francisco and points beyond.  

But since 2001, the crumbling structure, in desperate need of repair, has been closed to the public. Now, after more than two decades, Pigeon Point Lighthouse is being painstakingly restored thanks to state and private funding, including from California State Parks Foundation, and is set to reopen to the public by spring 2027 (or sooner). 

“Restoring the lighthouse is a way to keep history alive,” says Linda Hitchcock, Senior Park and Recreation Specialist for the Santa Cruz District State Parks and the District Project Manager for the Pigeon Point restoration project. “It reminds you of the past.” 

Lighting the Way Through History  

Built in 1872 by the U.S. Lighthouse Service, Pigeon Point Lighthouse helped ships navigate during a crucial time in California history, in the aftermath of the Gold Rush and the onset of industrialization and urbanization, when the state’s population was rapidly expanding. 

“People would take a boat to go from Los Angeles to San Francisco, and they would go up the coast in this rough water,” explains Hitchcock. “That’s how we would transport people and goods. It really wasn’t that long ago in California history.” 

In fact, Pigeon Point gets its name from the Carrier Pigeon, a clipper ship traveling from Boston to San Francisco around Cape Horn (at the southern tip of Chile) that ran aground in 1853 when it encountered dense fog. Two more shipwrecks in the 1860s, resulting in 50 deaths, spurred public demand for the lighthouse at Pigeon Point.  

Also of historical significance is the lighthouse’s first-order Fresnel lens, which focuses a concentrated beam of light. It consists of 1,008 glass pieces, stands 9 feet tall, and weighs 2,000 pounds. It was first used at Cape Hatteras in Buxton, North Carolina, during and after the Civil War. 

As a vital navigational aid on the California coast, the lighthouse was maintained by four keepers at a time. This continued even when the U.S. Coast Guard took over the lighthouse in 1939. But in the mid-1970s, when the lighthouse became automated, the building was no longer maintained regularly and began to fall into disrepair.  

Years of exposure to the elements came to a head in 2001, when two large pieces of cast iron and brick, each weighing several hundred pounds, broke off the tower’s upper belt course. Inspections revealed extensive structural deterioration of the unreinforced brick and-mortar structure, requiring the Coast Guard to close the lighthouse to the public. 

The Long and Winding Road to Restoration 

The journey to restore the lighthouse has been long and complex. Throughout, California State Parks Foundation has been a crucial partner. 

The Foundation helped transfer ownership of the lighthouse from the Coast Guard to California State Parks in 2005 and raised over $3 million for emergency stabilization, the removal of the Fresnel lens, engineering studies, design, and construction drawings, as well as the necessary permits to create a “shovel-ready” project, explains Randy Widera, Director of Programs for California State Parks Foundation. 

Private donations were key early on. Notable donors Diane and Donald Cooley and Bill and Jean Lane helped start the campaign and bring in more funders. 

Thanks to advocacy by the Foundation and others, local lawmakers also got on board, which ultimately led to Governor Gavin Newsom approving $18 million in state funding for the full restoration in 2021. 

Breaking ground in early 2024, the restoration project is from top to bottom, inside and out. In the upper portion of the tower, the roof was repaired and repainted, the vent ball was removed and restored, and new glass was installed in the lantern room. Corroded cast-iron belt courses, outer galleries, railings, and brackets were removed and are being replicated in marine-grade stainless steel by a foundry in Alabama (then painted black to resemble the cast iron). Three circular bond beams — rebar surrounded by concrete — are being added for strength and stability at the top of the tower. Brick and mortar are also being replaced.  

At the base of the tower, two belt courses are being replaced, as are brick and mortar that were badly deteriorated from the salty air and condensation. “Literally, the brick had turned to mud,” says Julie Barrow, Special Projects Coordinator at Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park, who has been supporting the restoration. 

Inside the tower, lead paint was removed, and stairs, landings, and walls have been repainted. Windows were replaced or repaired and refurbished. Seismic cracks were repaired. And in the attached oil house, the keeper’s office and oil room were renovated, with new hearths and oak flooring. Seismic bracing was also added to the attic and chimney. 

The restoration has required skilled tradespeople, including carpenters, masons, painters, electricians, roofers, metalworkers, crane operators, and others — many of whom specialize in lighthouse restoration. “It’s fulfilling for me to just be part of this historical restoration and keep the lighthouses in the best condition as we can make them,” says Roger Wykle, the founder and CEO of Sustainable Group, the general contractor for the project, working alongside subcontractor ICC Commonwealth. Between the two companies, they’ve worked on more than 50 lighthouses around the country. 

Restoring a building of this historical nature requires balancing preservation with long-term durability. Many pieces that were hoped to be salvaged ultimately had to be replaced, pushing what started as a $12 million project to $15 million. 

Separate from the current restoration project, the full restoration of the Fresnel lens is also being planned. It will return to the top of the lighthouse, where it will be lit for special occasions. After years of being dark, Pigeon Point will become a working navigational aid when a new automated LED beacon returns to the balcony outside the lantern room. When the project is completed, visitors will once again be able to walk inside the lighthouse, and plans are in the works for a limited number of tours to the top. 

Barrow expects the refurbished, reopened lighthouse will become a major tourist attraction. “At our height, we were seeing 200,000 visitors a year, pre-pandemic,” she says, and that was when visitors couldn't go inside the lighthouse. 

The biggest problem now? Figuring out how to expand the site’s small parking lot to accommodate new visitors. 

A Place of Hope 

What draws people to lighthouses? For some, it’s the romantic idea of being a lighthouse keeper, a solitary yet noble job out there in the elements. For others, it’s the striking architecture of a tall, conical structure at the edge of the ocean, the beauty of the Fresnel lens, or the emotional significance of guiding people home. 

Regardless of the reason, what’s clear is that the allure of lighthouses goes far beyond their functionality; they speak to something deeper within us. 
 

Thanks to the efforts of Barrow and Hitchcock at California State Parks, as well as the many donors, lawmakers, workers, and others who made the restoration a reality, Pigeon Point will be a safe, healing, and inspiring place for generations to come. 

To follow the restoration’s progress, visit California State Parks’ project page for the latest updates.