{"nrhp_refnum":"83001177","name":"Cresent City Lighthouse","other_names":["Battery Point Lighthouse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"A St., Battery Point Island","address_restricted":false,"city":"Crescent City","county":"Del Norte County","state":"CA","lat":41.74403262700008,"lon":-124.20309475199997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-09-15","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Exploration/Settlement","Architecture","Communications","Maritime History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A granite lighthouse complex on Battery Point island, reached on foot from the mainland at low tide, at the end of A Street in Crescent City, Del Norte County, California. It was built in 1856 by the United States Lighthouse Service.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is a notable surviving example of the earliest lighthouse design used on the West Coast, a Cape Cod dwelling with a tower through the center. It was the 11th West Coast lighthouse and is the oldest on California's north coast. It served as a navigational aid for over 100 years and marked the harbor entrance that was a point of entry to the Southern Oregon gold fields.","narrative":"Battery Point Lighthouse, also called Crescent City Lighthouse, sits on a small rocky island off Crescent City, California, reachable on foot at low tide. Built of granite in 1856 to Light House Service specifications, it is a story-and-a-half, four-room dwelling with a 77-foot tower rising through its center and a wooden lean-to kitchen at the rear. Later additions include water tanks from 1904, an oil house from 1907 and a boat house. The light guided ships along the Pacific Coast for more than a century and marked the harbor entrance during the 1850s gold rush traffic to Southern Oregon. It was the 11th lighthouse on the West Coast and is the oldest on California's north coast. The design shows how an eastern building type spread to California in the early years of American settlement. The county took over the property in 1969, and the historical society now runs it as a museum, with the beacon active again since 1982.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"United States Lighthouse Service","architectural_style":"Cape Cod dwelling with central tower (early West Coast lighthouse design)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in good repair; maintained by Del Norte County and the Del Norte County Historical Society as a museum, and the light was reactivated in 1982 as a private aid to navigation.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.348412-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/83001177.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83001177/db06623a1b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83001177/db06623a1b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 2.0","author":"Kathleen Franklin from Marysville, CA, USA","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battery_Point_Lighthouse_-_Crescent_City_CA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Kathleen Franklin from Marysville, CA, USA</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battery_Point_Lighthouse_-_Crescent_City_CA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123858584","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_Point_Light","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4869878"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/del-norte-county/cresent-city-lighthouse-83001177/"}