Credit: US Coast Guard
The Point Vicente lighthouse has been a fixture on the hill for almost 100 years. The light began service on April 14, 1926. Since then, it has been assisting mariners continuously, even during World War II when it was dimmed significantly by replacing its 1000 watt bulb with one of 25 watts. The lighthouse is 67 feet tall, but the light is 185 feet above the water as a result of its location on the cliff. The flash pattern of the light is unique to this coast. It is a white light with two quick flashes every 20 seconds which is different from other nearby lighthouses so mariners can easily identify which light they see.
The genesis of the light was in 1913, the same year Frank Vanderlip purchased all 16,000 acres of the Peninsula, when mariners asked the federal government to provide a navigation aid at Point Vicente, westernmost point on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. In 1912, the government acknowledged the need and in 1916 $80,000 was appropriated. When Vanderlip refused to part with the land, the government began condemnation proceedings to seize it under their right of eminent domain. Condemnation was halted and then restarted again in 1919, after which Vanderlip capitulated. Title was transferred in 1921.
The first keeper, George L’Hommedieu, did not get along with his assistants and was replaced in 1930 by Anton Trittinger who remained the keeper until 1945 when Joseph May, the last civilian lighthouse keeper assumed the job. In 1955 May was replaced by a succession of Coast Guard enlisted personnel until the lighthouse was automated in 1973. In 1992 Eric Castro-Bran, a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary was appointed Associate Lighthouse Keeper with responsibility for lighthouse maintenance, and it was he who promoted establishment of the public open house program. In 2001 the light station was used in the motion picture Pearl Harbor and again in 2017 for Dunkirk. Upon Castro-Bran’s departure in 2021, Kip Louttit, a retired Coast Guard captain and a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, assumed overall responsibility for the lighthouse with the title of Staff Officer for Navigation Systems, Pt. Vicente Lighthouse.
Credit: US Coast Guard
The three houses originally used as quarters for the lighthouse keepers and their families and subsequently as Coast Guard housing have not been occupied since 2019 because concerns regarding lead paint and asbestos.
The building in which the foghorn equipment was located is now the small display center that sits next to the lighthouse and is open to the public when the grounds are open. There is a heli-pad on the property, which is used both for Coast Guard rescue training and by water dropping helicopters when they are combating local fires. The lighthouse itself has not been open to the public since 2019 because of concerns regarding lead paint and asbestos here as well.
The third order French-built Fresnel lens, its light bulb system and its pedestal were retired after 93 years in of continuous use.
In 2019, in about a week, the fixture was disassembled, moved to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center next door and reassembled there where it is beautifully displayed.
Credit: Jim Shneer
The Coast Guard did a study that determined that even in an age of electronic navigation with systems such as GPS and radar, a lighthouse was still needed at Point Vicente since it is a major seacoast aid to navigation, so the Fresnel Lens was replaced by a modern, solar powered, autonomous, LED fixture with a range of 14 miles and same flash pattern of 2 white flashes every 20 seconds.
Upkeep and restoration of historically significant lighthouses and adjacent property is not provided by the Coast Guard whose responsibility is limited to ensuring that the navigation aids are working properly. Like the community group that prevented the demolition of, and funded the restoration of the Point Fermin lighthouse and another group that spear-headed the acquisition of funds to repair Angels Gate lighthouse at the entrance to Los Angeles harbor, a new group is being formed to provide sorely needed work at Point Vicente. This group, which calls itself Friends of the Point Vicente Lighthouse, view their top priorities as the repair of the badly rusted metal roof of the cupola at the top of the lighthouse, the tile roofs on the small buildings that are used to support the public open house program, and remediation of the toxic materials inside the lighthouse itself so that public tours into the lighthouse can be resumed. If you are interested in learning more about this group, please visit friendsofpvlighthouse.org to see how you can get involved.
The open house program at the light station continues on the second Saturday of every month from 10 AM to 3 PM. The visitor will usually find Kip Louttit and his wife Wendy, also a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, there as well, welcoming visitors and answering their questions.
Jim Shneer was an aerospace engineering manager who, since his retirement, has devoted himself to lecturing and writing on the results of his historical research. His book Exploring The Military History of Fort MacArthur and Palos Verdes
can be found at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center gift shop. All of his books in print may be found at www.lulu.com/spotlight/gg2490 and his online articles at http://tinyurl.com/mwy5yzw2.
