Pigeon Point Lighthouse Restoration
For as long as humans have gone to sea, the challenge of staying clear of those places where land meets water has taxed the skills of mariners. The beauty of a rocky coastline is tarnished when a stiff fog blows in, or a sudden nor’easter moves ashore. So long before radar or GPS tracking, the answer was a network of light houses. Some tall, some small, that would alert sea captains to trouble ahead. From New England, to Florida, the Pacific Coastline to the Great Lake, these brick towers merged safety with beauty. Artists and poets get as much out of lighthouses as anyone who has ever gone to sea.
But time, wind, violent storms, constant fog, and salt air, has taken a real toll on these coastline sentinels. Rising ocean levels nearly toppled several of the famous ones.
But across America, an army of engineers and architects, metal workers, carpenters and brick masons are fighting back to save this history. New equipment and tools, and can do optimists are moving and restoring the old lighthouses. This is their story of preservation.
At the Pigeon Point Lighthouse some 50 miles south of San Francisco along California Highway One, that restoration work is on full display. Teams are rebuilding the lighthouse built in 1870. The tower was closed by the US Coast Guard in 2021 after pieces of cast iron and brick from near the top of the tower, broke off and crashed to the ground. A $16 Million restoration project is being led by California State Parks.
But the science of saving the lighthouses really began decades ago, with legendary people pulling off seemingly impossible feats of engineering.
Two of the many legends are Richard Lohr, who ran ICC Commonwealth (International Chimney Corporation) for years, and Jerry Matyiko, who along with his son Gabriel, run Expert House Movers. ICC began building, repairing and evening moving the giant brick industrial smoke stacks, and eventually lighthouses.
Expert House Movers started moving small homes, and later giant structures, covered bridges and even lighthouses. The two came together and tackled the movement of historic lighthouses like Hatteras in North Carolina, and Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. The lessons learned on the old smoke stacks are not lost on this group. Says Jerry, “Lighthouses are just a smoke stack with a light on top.”
On the Pigeon Point project, in addition to ICC, The Sustainable Group, out of California, is General Contractor on the project. Also a big part of the team, is Robinson Iron, based in Alexander City, Alabama. These and other companies, are the heavy lifters of historic preservation. Their stories of the early days of inventing the technology of preservation are fascinating, and inspiring.
Julie Barrow, is Special Projects Coordinator on the Pigeon Point Light Station and has been a part of the restoration for nearly 25 years now. Long ready to retire, she won’t hang things up until this project is finished. She has documented all the work and can tell you every aspect of the project and is proud of the remarkable efforts to bring it back to its old glory days, and posts frequent Lighthouse Restoration Updates. Says Julie,”We consider this one of the Crown Jewels of the California Park System.” It won’t be long until the Crown Jewel is back in royal form.
Also several non profit groups are donating to the restoration.
Coastside State Parks Association
Pigeon Point Lighthouse Restoration
For as long as humans have gone to sea, the challenge of staying clear of those places where land meets water has taxed the skills of mariners. The beauty of a rocky coastline is tarnished when a stiff fog blows in, or a sudden nor’easter moves ashore. So long before radar or GPS tracking, the answer was a network of light houses. Some tall, some small, that would alert sea captains to trouble ahead. From New England, to Florida, the Pacific Coastline to the Great Lake, these brick towers merged safety with beauty. Artists and poets get as much out of lighthouses as anyone who has ever gone to sea.
But time, wind, violent storms, constant fog, and salt air, has taken a real toll on these coastline sentinels. Rising ocean levels nearly toppled several of the famous ones.
But across America, an army of engineers and architects, metal workers, carpenters and brick masons are fighting back to save this history. New equipment and tools, and can do optimists are moving and restoring the old lighthouses. This is their story of preservation.
At the Pigeon Point Lighthouse some 50 miles south of San Francisco along California Highway One, that restoration work is on full display. Teams are rebuilding the lighthouse built in 1870. The tower was closed by the US Coast Guard in 2021 after pieces of cast iron and brick from near the top of the tower, broke off and crashed to the ground. A $16 Million restoration project is being led by California State Parks.
But the science of saving the lighthouses really began decades ago, with legendary people pulling off seemingly impossible feats of engineering.
Two of the many legends are Richard Lohr, who ran ICC Commonwealth (International Chimney Corporation) for years, and Jerry Matyiko, who along with his son Gabriel, run Expert House Movers. ICC began building, repairing and evening moving the giant brick industrial smoke stacks, and eventually lighthouses.
Expert House Movers started moving small homes, and later giant structures, covered bridges and even lighthouses. The two came together and tackled the movement of historic lighthouses like Hatteras in North Carolina, and Gay Head on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. The lessons learned on the old smoke stacks are not lost on this group. Says Jerry, “Lighthouses are just a smoke stack with a light on top.”
On the Pigeon Point project, in addition to ICC, The Sustainable Group, out of California, is General Contractor on the project. Also a big part of the team, is Robinson Iron, based in Alexander City, Alabama. These and other companies, are the heavy lifters of historic preservation. Their stories of the early days of inventing the technology of preservation are fascinating, and inspiring.
Julie Barrow, is Special Projects Coordinator on the Pigeon Point Light Station and has been a part of the restoration for nearly 25 years now. Long ready to retire, she won’t hang things up until this project is finished. She has documented all the work and can tell you every aspect of the project and is proud of the remarkable efforts to bring it back to its old glory days, and posts frequent Lighthouse Restoration Updates. Says Julie,”We consider this one of the Crown Jewels of the California Park System.” It won’t be long until the Crown Jewel is back in royal form.
Also several non profit groups are donating to the restoration.
Coastside State Parks Association
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