Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

The bottom story of the lighthouse originally housed the station's fog signal equipment along with water and fuel tanks, and the floor above this was used for storage. The top two stories of the tower contained sleeping quarters for a four-man crew, whose families were housed on shore, while a kitchen and pantry were located on the tower's third story. Atop the lighthouse is a cylindrical, helical-bar lantern room whose light is exhibited at a focal plane of fifty-nine feet.

The original plan for the lighthouse was a wooden, square, two-story building like those constructed for Oakland Harbor and Southampton Shoals. Fortunately, the plans were changed and a more stout structure was built, as a wooden structure never would have survived the various forces which seemed bent on destroying the light. For five days one year, the lighthouse was battered by large breakers, spawned by a gale. After the storm, the keepers dropped a plumb line from the lantern gallery proving their suspicion that the storm had given the tower a slight lean shoreward. Over the years, rust in the supporting columns has also contributed to the lighthouse's lean.

In another incident that occurred in the early 1930s, a keeper was startled one night, when a tremendous blow was delivered to the base of the tower. Scrambling to the window, the amazed keeper saw the silhouette of a large Navy ship, which had rammed the breakwater. The ship received damage to its hull and propeller and had to make a trip to Mare Island for repairs.

Long Beach was hit by an earthquake in 1933 that killed 115 people. The keeper of the L.A. Harbor Lighthouse at the time reported that it shook violently for about twenty seconds and that mercury slopped out of the pool used to float the lens, but no significant damage was done to the tower.

In 1965-1966, Raymond Wlascinski was stationed at the Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse, where he was in charge of equipment maintenance. Wlascinski provided this black and white photograph of the lighthouse, noting that the building on the far left was used for paint and oil storage, while the two-story building adjacent to the lighthouse contained sleeping quarters for the crew. According to Wlascinski, the foghorns mounted atop the building would “shake your innards,” if you got too close.

Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse Photograph courtesy Coast Guard Museum Northwest

A welcome relief to the keepers’ daily chores arrived at the lighthouse one day in the form of a frisky California harbor seal that the crewmen named Charlie. The three-foot-long seal, probably about eight or nine months old, just climbed up the rocks one day, shortly after New Year’s in 1966, and made his way into the engine room.

In a newspaper article entitled “Charlie Good (Light) Housekeeping Seal,” Wlascinski was quoted as saying, “Lighthouse keeping can be lonely and tedious at times and spirits sure do peak up around here when that little critter comes calling.” During off-duty hours, the keepers would fish from the breakwater rocks to provide Charlie his next meal. Charlie was fond of bonito and rock bass, but when fresh fish wasn’t available, he quickly acquired a taste for bread, ham, and frozen fish sticks. In this photograph Raymond Wlascinski has his hand on Charlie, while Dave Aikens offers the seal a tasty morsel.

The Los Angeles Harbor Lighthouse has experienced several changes over the years. As the community and "light noise" on the hills behind the lighthouse grew, a green translucent cover was placed over the lens to change the characteristic from flashing white to flashing green. The old deep-throated two-tone fog horn, affectionately known to locals as "Moaning Maggie," was replaced by a higher-pitched single-tone horn. The new horn, nicknamed "Blatting Betty," was disliked by local mariners for years. The last major change for the lighthouse came in 1973, when the lighthouse was automated and the keepers departed.

The original fourth-order Fresnel lens, which was first lit on March 1, 1913, was removed from the tower in September of 1987 and donated to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum in February of 1990.

References

1. Umbrella Guide to California Lighthouses, Sharlene and Ted Nelson, 1993.
2. Lighthouses of the Pacific, Jim Gibbs, 1986.
3. U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office website.

To get a bird's-eye view of the lighthouse, you can take a helicopter ride with Los Angeles Helicopters. The Port of Los Angeles website lists operators that offer harbor cruises that might pass near the lighthouse.

The lens from the L.A Harbor Lighthouse is on display at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, which is located at Berth 84, near the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Sixth Streets, in San Pedro. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. The museum can be reached at (310) 548-7618.