The lighthouse that was too tall for its own good

On Sunday, November 15, the Old Point Loma Lighthouse turns 171, and Cabrillo National Monument is marking the night it was first lit with an Open Tower Day. It’s one of only a few days a year when visitors can climb past the usual stopping point, up a spiral staircase and a short ladder, to the top of the tower and the lens deck. Rangers lead 30-minute tours between 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., with tickets handed out first come, first served at a table near the lighthouse. You’ll need to be at least 48 inches tall, wear closed-toe shoes with backs, and leave the backpack in the car. The park doesn’t list a separate tour fee, so see organizer for official price, admission or time.

It caps a busy few weeks for local history. October is American Archives Month, and the San Diego County Archives in Santee is hosting a free public celebration on Wednesday, October 21, from 3 to 7 p.m., with panels, exhibits and tours built around an America 250 theme on military museums and archives. Registration is requested. On Tuesday, October 27, national parks, Cabrillo included, waive entrance fees for U.S. citizens and residents. And the day before Open Tower Day, on Saturday, November 14, the San Diego History Center opens its research archives to the public for a Community Research Access Day. See organizer for official price, admission or time.

Before you go, here’s what most people don’t know about the lighthouse they’re about to climb: as a lighthouse, it was kind of a flop. It worked for only 36 years, nearly got torn down, and its original lens has never been found. Many of the old photos of it only survived because a title company decided to save them.

A perfect spot with one big problem

In 1851, a year after California became a state, a U.S. Coast Survey team came west to choose sites for the first eight federal lighthouses on the Pacific coast. The tip of Point Loma, about 422 feet above sea level, seemed ideal, since a light up there could be seen from both the ocean and the bay. The Baltimore contractors who won the job were less impressed. They had to build a road and bridges just to haul materials up the hill, and the water for their mortar came from a well at La Playa, roughly seven miles away.

San Diego was originally meant to get a big first-order lens, but a smaller third-order lens went in instead. According to a 1968 history published with the National Park Service, the larger lens ended up at Cape Flattery in Washington, the most northwesterly lighthouse in the country, about as far from Point Loma as you can get.

The light was first lit on November 15, 1855, and it was billed as the highest lighthouse in the U.S. One steamship captain reported spotting it from 39 miles out. But anyone who has lived through a May Gray morning can guess what happened next. Fog and low clouds often settled right over the light and hid it from the very ships it was supposed to guide. In March 1891, a new Point Loma lighthouse opened much closer to the water, and the old tower was boarded up.

The view that made Point Loma perfect for tourists made it terrible for sailors.

The people who kept it, and the people who saved it

Life at the top of the point wasn’t easy. In under 36 years, 11 principal keepers and 22 assistants came and went, worn down by low pay, isolation and the constant chore of collecting water. The big exception was Robert Israel, the last keeper, who stayed 18 years. His wife, Mary, served as assistant keeper for a time, a reminder that keeping a light was one of the first federal jobs open to women at equal pay. When the new lighthouse opened on March 23, 1891, it was Robert Israel who lit its lamp.

Once abandoned, the old building fell apart quickly. Vandals carried off pieces of it, and in 1913 the commanding officer at nearby Fort Rosecrans recommended tearing it down. That same year, a group called the Order of Panama wanted to replace it with a 150-foot statue of explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, and an October 1913 presidential proclamation created Cabrillo National Monument to clear the way. The statue never happened, and the group eventually dissolved. Meanwhile, people kept driving out for the view, so the lighthouse stayed.

Over the next few decades it served as a radio and signal tower, an Army post exchange, a tea house and a visitor center. A 1933–35 restoration finally put it back on its feet, and on its 100th birthday, November 15, 1955, the light glowed again at sunset. The one piece that never came home is the original lens. It was removed within a week of the 1891 closing, likely shipped to a depot in San Francisco or New York, and the NPS says its fate has yet to be discovered. The lens in the tower today is built to the original design.

Where to dig deeper

If the story hooks you, two local archives are worth a visit. At the San Diego History Center in Balboa Park, many of the earliest lighthouse photos, including shots of the building abandoned and crumbling, come from the Title Insurance and Trust Company’s historical collection. A San Diego title company started it in 1946, worried that the city’s visual history would be lost, and donated it to the History Center in 1979. Today it’s part of a collection of more than 2.5 million images. The Research Archives, on the lower level of the Casa de Balboa, are open by fee-based appointment outside of Community Research Access Days like Nov. 14.

Out in Santee, the San Diego County Archives opened in 2020 and holds official records going back to 1850, including old deeds, land patents and recorded maps that trace how the county was carved up and settled. Most documents can be viewed on public kiosks at no fee, and no appointment is required, though the archivists suggest emailing ahead.

Then go see the lighthouse itself. On a regular day you can explore its first two floors; on Nov. 15 you can go all the way up. Either way, walk over to the Assistant Keepers Quarters to see the big flashing lens from the newer lighthouse.

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