A Guide to the Best of Southern California : LANDMARKS : To the Lighthouse

As any salty sea veteran will tell you, nothing says “Home Sweet Home” like the beckoning shaft of light emanating from a picturesque old lighthouse. Southern California, though a late entrant into the maritime commerce game and not as well-endowed with these majestic structures as New England or Northern California, still boasts a couple of grand old specimens. A few of these operate today; the rest stand as relics.

Point Loma

The oldest of Southern California’s lighthouses sits atop Point Loma at the Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego. Built in 1854, this Cape Cod-style house, with its protruding light tower, kept ships from crashing on the cliffs until it was abandoned in 1891. Visitors to the restored site will find it looks just as it did when Robert D. Israel, Loma’s last lighthouse keeper, lived there with his family. There’s even an old deck of cards on the living room table, laid out for one of the countless games of solitaire the isolated Israels must have played.

Point Fermin

Los Angeles got its first lighthouse--the beautiful Victorian that crowns San Pedro’s Point Fermin--in 1874, as the result of 20 years of incessant lobbying by Phineas Banning, the so-called “father of the harbor.” Although the lighthouse was replaced by a nearby automated tower in 1928, it has been occupied without interruption. While the public is not allowed inside, anyone can have a look from the outside. According to the caretaker, Julian Jiminez, the house, which is in a public park on Paseo del Mar, is scheduled for a face-lift sometime this year.

Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse

Talk about lonely. The 89-year-old Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse stands like a solitary sentry at the end of a two-mile-long breakwater off the Long Beach coast. Although the last keeper departed in 1973, this 73-foot-high lighthouse, now automated, is still in service, flashing a green-blue light. Its unusual, somewhat Romanesque design, as well as its slight shoreward tilt, make comparison to the Leaning Tower of Pisa unavoidable. You can approach the lighthouse by either an easy boat ride from Long Beach or by a brisk hike along the jetty from Cabrillo Beach (neither should be attempted, though, in inclement weather). Be aware that the fenced-in area around the lighthouse is Coast Guard property, so, as the federal government likes to say, keep out.

Point Vicente

A 1,000-watt light focused through a five-foot lens makes the beacon at Point Vicente on Palos Verdes Peninsula the brightest in Southern California. Built in 1927 and automated in 1971, this 67-foot-high concrete tower is still operated by the Coast Guard, its light visible for more than 20 miles. The landward window was painted out in 1946 to keep the sweeping beam from annoying the neighbors. Soon after, “The Lady of the Light,” an apparition that would become the stuff of local legend, was born. A tall, serene woman in a flowing gown, the lady appeared along the tower walkway. Some believe she is a lighthouse keeper’s wife who stumbled off the cliff one foggy night. Others say she awaits a lover who never returned from the sea. The Coast Guard insists the lady is a simple illusion caused by the moving light penetrating the painted glass. Still, Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Gunn says he was hesitant about pulling night duty. “I don’t believe in ghosts during the day,” he says. “At night, it’s a completely different story.”