The iconic Point Vicente Lighthouse just turned 100. It needs help

In April 1926, the Point Vicente Lighthouse, the clifftop beacon of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, was illuminated for the first time.

Its delicate, rotating glass Fresnel lens cast a yellow beam so powerful that it could be seen 20 miles out to sea. The Times reported breathlessly at the time that the 67-foot cylinder tower was “the finest lighthouse … ever constructed, either in this country or on foreign sea coasts.”

Initially, it was a lonely post. The barren, rugged cliffs were sparsely populated.

But a new scenic highway — now the heavily-trafficked Palos Verdes Drive — also opened in 1926, connecting burgeoning Redondo Beach and San Pedro and passing right by the lighthouse. Soon, the hills filled with pricey ocean-view homes. The lighthouse became the pride of the peninsula, a beloved backdrop for wedding and quinceañera photos and picnics and an image plastered on many local business and nonprofit logos.

This year, the lighthouse turned 100, and it is showing its age. Its deteriorating tower has lead paint and asbestos inside and has been closed to the public for a few years. Its ornate iron cupola is pockmarked with rust. Its majestic Fresnel? Replaced by an automated light.

The lighthouse, an active U.S. Coast Guard station, still shines. It is still beautiful from afar. But it needs help.

Point Vicente is one of more than 40 lighthouses to grace the California coast since the 1850s.

The Coast Guard took over operations of the nation’s lighthouses in 1939, and by the early 1990s, most were automated. Without keepers present for daily maintenance in the oft-harsh and briny air, many fell into disrepair and were considered excess property by the federal government, which did not set aside much money for preservation. Nonprofits and other groups sprang up around the country to care for the aging beacons.

An effort to save a fading beauty

Two years ago, Amy Forte, who grew up in Palos Verdes, agreed to help a friend who was volunteering with a Boy Scouts troop, checking in visitors for a tour of the Point Vicente Lighthouse grounds by the civilian Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Mist shrouds Catalina Island beyond the Point Vicente Lighthouse on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

(Luis Sinco)

Forte was stunned to learn that the tower was closed to the public and saddened to see its sorry state. She joined forces with a small group of locals and founded the nonprofit Friends of the Point Vicente Lighthouse to restore the tower, keepers’ quarters and support structures.

Forte, the group’s president, said they are working closely with the Coast Guard and don’t yet have a formal assessment of construction costs — but she believes full repairs will cost a few million dollars.

Since last spring, Friends of the Point Vicente Lighthouse has collected about $60,000 in small donations. Soon, they will start major fundraising drives.

A stable place in an unstable zone

“We don’t have that many things that are a hundred years old in this area,” Forte said. “It’s a really wonderful symbol of stability. It’s a guiding light not just for the ships that pass through the Catalina Channel, but for all of us here. It’s a mainstay in a world that’s really chaotic.”

In recent years, landslides have brought chaos to the Palos Verdes Peninsula, cracking the foundations of homes and turning Palos Verdes Drive South into a rutted, bumpy asphalt roller coaster. The historic Wayfarers Chapel — a glass sanctuary designed by Lloyd Wright, the son of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright — was dismantled in 2024 after some of its windows shattered because of land movement.

The lighthouse, though, is on stable ground, Forte said.

A ghost story

Decades ago, the biggest fright in the area came not from cracking ground but from a lighthouse ghost story.

Visitors walk near the Point Vicente Lighthouse on Sept. 18, 2025.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The ghost was said to be the widow of a lighthouse keeper who had stumbled off the cliff one night and fell to his death on the rocky beach below. Legend had it that the grief-stricken woman hurled herself into the sea, and her spirit inhabited the tower.

A Coast Guard petty officer told The Times in 1981 that the legend was “all hooey,” that “people reported to have died never died” and “the first keeper never walked off the cliff.”

And in a 1955 interview with The Times, Joe May, the last civilian lighthouse keeper before operations were taken over by the Coast Guard, said the inland windows of the lamp room had been painted so that the bright Fresnel wouldn’t bother people living in the hills. When the paint was thin, the light played tricks, causing people to think they saw the silhouette of a young lady in an evening dress, dancing in the lamp room.

May, described by The Times as “a small man with a weather-worn face,” was 70 and had served at Point Vicente for over a decade. He was unhappy about retiring and chafed when a Coast Guard officer made a prescient joke about the value of the lighthouse property, “considering the soaring value of Southland real estate.”

May reluctantly conceded that the grounds were indeed a “dandy spot.”

Today’s top stories

Surfers walk past a sign along West Ocean Front on July 6 in Newport Beach, where two days earlier, a huge number of people flooded the area unexpectedly.

(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

Chaos and vandalism in Newport Beach

• Thousands of teens and young adults swarmed Newport Beach over Fourth of July weekend, unleashing hours of chaos, vandalism and fireworks that residents say eclipsed the city’s past holiday trouble.
• Police arrested 402 people, a 570% jump from last year, as a suspected TikTok “takeover” and private chat apps helped draw out-of-town crowds faster than officers could respond.

The U.S. is eliminated from the World Cup

• U.S. hopes of a historic World Cup run on home soil were shattered in the loss to Belgium.
• Trump’s World Cup meddling only made matters worse for rattled U.S. squad, writes columnist Mirjam Swanson.
• All three World Cup hosts — U.S., Canada and Mexico — have been eliminated from the tournament.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s biggest test

• California’s self-styled “first partner” is testing the limits of a political spouse’s role as she confronts reporters, culture wars and her husband’s national ambitions.
• Here’s more on how her decision to be California’s “first partner” marks a break from first lady tradition, challenging a role long defined by gendered expectations and ceremonial support.

What else is going on

• The DMV could revoke thousands of California licenses due to mysterious testing “anomalies.”
• How to watch the 2026 Emmy nominations and everything else you should know.
• New FireSat satellites promise faster wildfire detection over California and beyond.
• How L.A. County rescue teams deployed to Venezuela leaned on their support team at home.

Commentary and opinions

• Mexico lost in the World Cup — but Mexican Americans won, argues Gustavo Arellano.
• In his latest column, Michael Hiltzik writes about how right-wing anti-transgender attacks led to a Supreme Court ruling upholding sex discrimination.

This morning’s must-read

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Another must-read

• The Hollywood Bowl just got its biggest sound upgrade in a generation. AI is doing the heavy lifting.

For your downtime

Fans cheer after Lionel Messi scores a goal against Algeria in a group-stage match during an Argentina World Cup watch party at Mercado Buenos Aires in Van Nuys.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

• Restaurants: With World Cup glory on the line, Argentina fans flock to this family-run Valley mercado.
• Theater: At New Theater Hollywood, artist Julia Weist turns a New York Department of State interrogation over her private investigator license into a 55‑minute docudrama, “Questioning.”

Staying in

• Documentaries: Go back in time to explore the saga of two of the greatest tennis stars in “Chris & Martina: The Final Set,” now streaming on Netflix.
• 🥗 Here’s a recipe for summertime pineapple upside-down cake.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games.

A question for you: What are the most unique town names in California?

Ken B. writes: Granted, it’s unincorporated, but how could you overlook Zzyzx?

Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.

And finally ... your photo of the day

In the San Gabriel Mountains, a blue wind phone stands on a foggy forest ridge near a roadside turnout in Wrightwood, Calif. The wind phone is dedicated to Robert Byrne, 28, whose 1995 murder is still unsolved.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Today’s great photo is from Times photographer Gina Ferazzi in the San Gabriel Mountains near a wind phone, which gives comfort to those grieving. The first wind phone was created by a Japanese man who lost a cousin to cancer decades ago.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Hailey Branson-Potts, staff writer
Hugo Martín, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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