{"nrhp_refnum":"77000337","name":"Pigeon Point Lighthouse","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"S of Pescadero at Pigeon Point off CA 1","address_restricted":false,"city":"Pescadero","county":"San Mateo County","state":"CA","lat":37.181706132000045,"lon":-122.39364927599996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-03-08","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Military","Engineering","Transportation","Politics/Government","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A working brick lighthouse with an attached watch house and several support buildings on Pigeon Point, near Pescadero, San Mateo County, California. It was built in 1871-1873 on a 4.3-acre Coast Guard-owned site.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it the most beautiful and best architectural lighthouse on the Pacific Coast, an excellent example of a mid-nineteenth-century classic lighthouse. It has served continuously for over a century with its original first-order Fresnel lens. It was a powerful coastal light for shipping, and the tower plan was a type not otherwise used on the West Coast.","narrative":"Pigeon Point Lighthouse is a 100-foot brick tower on a rocky cliff about fifty feet above the Pacific, halfway between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz. Construction began in 1871 under builder Phineas F. Marston, to plans signed by the Light House Board, and the light first shone on 15 November 1872. Shipwrecks along the fog-bound coast prompted its creation. The tower has an octagonal base, a conical shaft with cut-stone window trim, a cast-iron gallery and a brass-and-copper lantern. A brick watch house in Eastlake or Cottage style is attached. The first-order Fresnel lens, made in Paris and earlier used at Cape Hatteras, still sits in the lantern. The tower has needed no structural changes and has weathered earthquakes and storms without damage. A 1908 fog signal building and carpenter shop and a 1909 oil house are included in the district. The nomination praises it as an excellent example of a working lighthouse in a largely unchanged setting.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899 and 1900 (specific dates 1871-1873)","architect_builder":"Phineas F. Marston (builder/architect); drawings signed by George H. Elliot, Major of Engineers, Light House Board; ironwork cast by Nutting & Son, San Francisco","architectural_style":"Italianate (tower); watch house in restrained Eastlake or Cottage style","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in active service as a lighthouse, automated in February 1974 with an aero beacon added; the lens remains in place; condition excellent and unaltered. The 1870s keeper's house was demolished in 1960.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:32.067132-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/77000337.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000337/8742ba1dcf-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/77000337/8742ba1dcf-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Frank Schulenburg","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pigeon_Point_Lighthouse_(2016).jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Frank Schulenburg</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pigeon_Point_Lighthouse_(2016).jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861546","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeon_Point_Lighthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7193314"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/san-mateo-county/pigeon-point-lighthouse-77000337/"}