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Lighthouses
South Bay Lighthouses:
Point Fermin, Los Angeles Harbor Light, and Point Vicente
The United States Lighthouse Service was established under the Lighthouse Act, in August of 1789 in the Treasury Department. It was one of the earliest acts of the newly formed United States Congress. Viewed as an imperative to establishing federal authority, and essential to commerce, establishing a process for the implementation of lighthouses was critical to the new nation. Most clearly, they were needed as navigational aids, but also for connecting local and regional trade to the burgeoning national economy. This federal investment in lighthouses was critical to the country, and to the understanding that lighthouses were not isolated architectures, but a deeply interconnected representation of the country itself.
In 1854, Alcatraz Light was the first light station built in California, four years after achieving statehood in 1850. Having served as part of a military fort, and most infamously as a federal prison, its original intention was to guide ships through the Golden Gate (today it is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area). It would be the first of nearly fifty lighthouses that would be built throughout the state between 1854 and 1932.
In the South Bay, there are three lighthouses within 12 miles of each other that are touch points for the different periods of lighthouse construction; Point Fermin (1874), Los Angeles Harbor Light (1913), and Point Vicente (1926). Each has a distinctive architectural style, and a story to tell about the development of Los Angeles.
Point Fermin Lighthouse 1874
Point Fermin Lighthouse was the first navigational aid to the Port of Los Angeles. Built in 1874, this redwood Stick Style Victorian design was one of three constructed on the West coast during the 1870’s. The lighthouse features intricate woodwork, gabled roofs, and a wraparound porch, embodying the craftsmanship of its era. Its 4th order Fresnel lens was originally illuminated with a kerosene lamp, until it was electrified in 1925.
Point Fermin was designed by Paul J. Pelz (1841-1919), a draftsman for the United States Lighthouse Service from the 1860s until 1877. After immigrating from modern day Poland to the United States, he accumulated an impressive architectural career that included many different civic structures including lighthouses, churches, public and commercial buildings, and notably went on to be one of the lead architects for additions to the Library of Congress (he was selected for the commission at the first meeting of the American Library Association in 1876). Pelz’s Point Fermin Lighthouse design was used for six other lighthouses around the country, three of which still stand today known as “sister lighthouses” – Hereford Inlet Lighthouses in Wildwood New Jersey, and East Brothers Lighthouse in Oakland, California.
Originally, Point Fermin was intended to also include a fog horn station. Fog horns of this period were powered by steam which required fresh water–a lot of it, so the station was scrapped after it was deemed to be too costly to provide all the resources needed to run it. A solution came in 1901 when a whistling buoy was installed a few miles off the point. The whistling buoy emits a longer or shorter sound depending on the magnitude of the tide rolling underneath it. (Image courtesy The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).)
The inaugural keepers at Point Fermin Lighthouse were sisters Mary and Ella Smith. The two sisters kept the light from then until Mary’s discharge in 1882. The Smith sisters had assisted their father, George Knight Smith, in lighthouse keeping since 1864 when he was appointed the first keeper of Ediz Hook Lighthouse in Washington State’s Port Angeles. When George Smith retired in 1870, Mary took over as head keeper, assisted by Ella. By the time the sisters first lit the lamp at Point Fermin Light on December 15, 1874, they had already endured many of the trials lighthouse keeping in isolated regions could put them through. The closest town to Point Fermin was Wilmington, which was at least five miles away by informal dirt roads. They were expected to manage their resources at the light and to be self-sustaining as possible. Supply ships, known as Lighthouse Tenders, would routinely provide essential supplies to lighthouse keepers. In San Pedro, these would stop at Timms landing, bringing dry goods, coal, coffee, flour, beans, potatoes, onions and other basics. This was supplemented by a vegetable garden and small livestock. (Image courtesy University of Southern California Libraries and California Historical Society.)
The primary task of lighthouse keepers was to maintain the lens that would sit in a room called the lantern gallery at the top of the lighthouse tower. This was an intricate piece of machinery that required constant attention. The first fourth order Fresnel lens to serve at Point Fermin under Mary and Ella was a red and white alternating patterned glass and was lit with a Funck’s hydraulic-float lamp. This used a wick floating in a mechanically regulated amount of oil within a lantern’s float chamber. Mary and Ella repeatedly had to have the West Coast based U.S. Lighthouse Service lampist come to repair the apparatus’s consistent quirks and unreliable mechanisms, which were never truly resolved. This meant the sisters had to constantly repair, monitor, and manually crank the light each night to ensure it was working properly. In 1876, Mary Smith participated in the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, and is believed to have had a role in the U.S. Lighthouse Board displays.
During World War II, the U.S. Navy used the light for radar equipment, and was critical for home front defense. The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Eventually, the lighthouse was transferred to the City of Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Department which has been open as a museum since 2003. (Image courtesy University of Southern California Libraries and California Historical Society.)
Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse 1913
Standing at the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse, informally known as Angeles Gate Lighthouse, is an essential landmark to the Port’s landscape. Built in 1913, this navigational aid features a steel-reinforced concrete tower and a lens that shines green—the only lighthouse on the West Coast with this distinctive feature. The lighthouse sits at the end of the two-mile federal breakwater, the construction of which was part of the high profile federal case known as the ‘Free Harbor Fight’ which lasted from 1890 until April 26, 1899–a day that marked the beginning of the construction of the breakwater, and arguably the Port of Los Angeles as we know it today.
In the early 20th century, the Port of Los Angeles was rapidly expanding to accommodate increased commercial and industrial activity, especially after the opening of the Panama Canal on August 15, 1914. The San Pedro Harbor, a key component of this expansion, required reliable navigation aids to ensure safe passage for vessels entering and exiting the port. In response to these needs, the United States Lighthouse Service (USLHS) commissioned the construction of the lighthouse in 1911. The lighthouse became operational on March 1, 1913. (Image courtesy U.S. Coast Guard.)
The Angeles Gate lighthouse stands 73 feet tall and features an octagonal base with a cylindrical tower. This structural steel design by Llewellyn Iron Works, not only provided structural stability but also served as the lightkeeper’s living quarters with a series of outbuildings, now gone, to accommodate storage. A fourth-order Fresnel lens installed during the lighthouse’s construction, was manufactured in France and shipped to the United States. The Fresnel lens’s design, consisting of concentric glass prisms, allowed it to project a powerful and focused beam of light visible for 19 nautical miles. The exterior of the lighthouse is painted white with black accents which enhances its visibility against the ocean. Initially, the light source was an incandescent oil vapor lamp, which was later replaced by an electric bulb to improve efficiency and reliability. (Image courtesy Los Angeles Maritime Museum.)
The lighthouse was originally manned by a lightkeeper who was responsible for maintaining the light, cleaning the lens, and ensuring the overall functionality of the station. The first keeper was John Olson, who had many tasks to keep up the maintenance of the light, including maintaining the delicate mercury float that balanced the lens (this was replaced in 1935 by the more cost effective ball-bearing drive powered by an electric motor). By the mid-20th century, many lighthouses became automated, including the Angeles Gate Lighthouse, and in 1973 the lighthouse was fully automated, which eliminated the need for full-time resident keepers. In 1987, it became the first lighthouse in California to run on solar power. Today, the still active light is inspected every three months by Coast Guard personnel. The fresnel lens once in the tower is now on display at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum.
In 2011, the non-profit Cabrillo Beach Boosters was awarded $1.8 million dollars in grant money from the Port of Los Angeles for a comprehensive restoration to address significant deterioration–broken windows, rusted walls, and cracked masonry, which was completed in 2012. The lighthouse is included in the National Register of Historic Places, serving as a reminder of Los Angeles’s maritime heritage and the vital role of the port in the city’s economic development. Though not open to the public, the lighthouse is best viewed by boat tours, or from the Cabrillo Beach fishing pier. (Image courtesy Los Angeles Maritime Museum.)
Point Vicente Lighthouse 1926
Point Vicente Lighthouse has been one of the most recognizable landmarks of the Palos Verdes Peninsula for a century. Funds for the lighthouse on the rocky and dangerous point were originally set aside in 1916, but construction wasn’t completed until 1926 on twelve acres that were deeded to the U.S. Lighthouse Service by the U.S. Army. The federal government had been in negotiations for several years to obtain the site from Palos Verdes developer Frank Vanderlip, Sr. who originally envisioned an artist colony there to contribute to his Mediterranean vision for the Peninsula.
The third order Fresnel lens, visible nearly 20 miles out to sea, was handcrafted in Paris in 1886 by Barbier, Benard, et Turenne at an expense of $7,000 dollars. It was first used in Alaska before being installed at Point Vicente. This lens is also known as the “main light” and would flash in twenty second intervals. There was also something known as a “standby light” which was the same type as the main light, but it was only used as a reserve lamp in case anything happened to the main light. There was also an “emergency light”, which is the same as the main light in characteristics, but it operated at a reduced power. The lighthouse’s 67 foot Spanish Revival-style tower is constructed with reinforced concrete and hosts a series of outbuildings as part of the light station; a former foghorn building, office, and three living quarters for lighthouse keepers.
In 1939, the U.S. Lighthouse Service was officially merged with U.S. Coast Guard operations, which took over the management of Point Vicente. The last civilian keeper, Joe May, served with the U.S. Coast Guard at the Point until 1955. It became fully automated by 1971. In 1934, the U.S. Lighthouse Service built a radio station on the grounds which was run by the U.S. Coast Guard. The site underwent significant modernization in 1966, after $225,000 was invested in re-outfitting the site to accommodate the newly appointed thirty-two Coast Guard officers who would be stationed there.
Point Vicente Lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and is still a working light, and continues to be managed by the U.S. Coast Guard. Adjacent to the lighthouse, the Point Vicente Interpretive Center provides additional insights into the area’s marine ecology and history. In February of 2020 the Fresnel lens was replaced with a more efficient LED powered light, and the lens is now on display in the Interpretive Center.
