The historic Pigeon Point Lighthouse will officially undergo a 16 million-dollar rehabilitation starting in 2024. The California State Parks released that a contractor has been chosen for the massive project, allowing the work to begin early next year. The project is expected to take approximately two years or less to complete.
The project has been a long time coming. The lighthouse was closed in 2001 due to large pieces of metal and brick falling from the building, causing it to become unsafe to the public.
“California State Parks looks forward to once again providing public access to this historic landmark that continues to guide mariners along the rocky San Mateo County coast,” said Santa Cruz District Superintendent Chris Spohrer in the California State Parks release.
The project picked Sustainable Group, Inc. and subcontractor ICC Commonwealth–both bringing extensive experience to the project–working on 100 lighthouses combined.
Pigeon Point Lighthouse History
Pigeon Point was named after an 1853 clipper ship named Carrier Pigeon that ran aground on the Central California Coast after getting disoriented in the fog. The lighthouse was built almost 20 years later, in 1872, to assist ships and avoid another crash like the Carrier Pigeon. The lighthouse stands at an impressive 115 feet tall, perched on a small bluff above the beach. The lighthouse’s height makes it possible to see it from roughly 14 nautical miles (or more, depending on the ship’s height), which is important for ships sailing along the coast.
Each lighthouse along the California coast had a unique arrangement of flashes to help sailors identify where they were amongst the fog. Pigeon Point still uses the same pattern of light flashes, one flash every ten seconds, as it did over 100 years ago. The historic lighthouse isn’t the only one on the coast, the Point Bonita Lighthouse in Marin dates back to 1855.