There is something nostalgic and charming about a lighthouse. It conjures a romantic image of the lonesome lighthouse keeper sustaining a beacon, lit for the benefit of nameless sailors on their nighttime sojourns at sea.
The technology seems completely obsolete now, yet there are still dozens of working lighthouses along the California coast.
The Point Cabrillo Light Station has been lighting the way for mariners since its lantern was first lit June 10, 1909. In its 100th year of service, the Point Cabrillo Light Station is now a California State Historic Park. Most recently, the head lighthouse keeper's house has been fully restored and is open for business as a bed-and-breakfast inn, the Lighthouse Inn at Point Cabrillo.
For anyone who has fantasized about living the life of the light keeper, here is your chance to sample the experience for a night.
The half-mile walk through the cool, clean air from Point Cabrillo Road to the light station affords visitors plenty of time to appreciate the view and drink in the fragrance of the dense grassland leading to the bluffs. Only registered guests and disabled visitors may drive cars down this road. The intermittent flash of golden light punctuates the line where the grass gives way to the rocky edge of the Pacific Ocean.
"It's a historic experience," said Jim Kimbrell, innkeeper and resident historian. "That half-mile walk is intended to be like a walk back into time, so visitors can experience the place the way someone would before cars were present – so they can experience what it was for the lightkeepers every day when they went to work."
The lighthouse was built in 1908 and the lamp went into service in 1909. It has been in operation – for the most part – ever since, said Kimbrell. In 1973, the original Fresnel lens was disengaged and replaced by a more modern beacon mounted on the roof. This rotating electric light remained in operation until the original Fresnel lens and lantern room were restored and put back to work in 1996.
In 1992, the California State Coastal Conservancy purchased approximately 300 acres of coastal bluffs, keeping the Point Cabrillo Light Station and its old-world charm at arm's length from modern development.
In 2002, it became the first lighthouse station to be designated a California state park. The nonprofit Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers Association manages the park facilities, and proceeds from the inn, gift shop and private donations pay for the ongoing restoration and preservation of the light station, which is nearly complete.
One of the two assistant lightkeepers' residences is still unfinished. The other is a lighthouse museum, while the head lightkeeper's house has been fully restored as the bed-and-breakfast inn.
At the Lighthouse Inn, there are four upstairs guest rooms and two separate garden cottages, which are handicap-accessible. The third and final phase of the project, which has not yet begun, will be the reconstruction of the barn, the pump house and a 52-foot-high water tower.
Next June 9, the light station plans to have a midnight celebration and ceremonial relighting of the lighthouse lamp to commemorate its 100th anniversary.
Under the changing stewardship of various agencies, the buildings have undergone several changes in the past century, but the Point Cabrillo Lightkeepers Association has restored them to their 1909 appearance in meticulous detail. According to Kimbrell, who is also the association's executive director, the color palette now matches the exact colors used by the United States Lighthouse Service at the beginning of the 20th century.
"Even the pale green around the window panes replicates the patina found on the bronze fittings in the lighthouse lantern room," Kimbrell said. He is proud to point out the rigorous attention to detail that won the light station the Governor's Historic Preservation Award in November 2007 and the California Preservation Foundation's Preservation Design Award.
Call Randall Benton at (916) 321-5273.
