Piedras Blancas Light Station

Piedras Blancas Light Station sits on a rocky knoll beside Highway 1 at the northern entrance to San Simeon Bay. Its 70-foot white-painted brick tower was built in 1875, and a brick fog-signal building and a concrete oil house followed in 1906. The station was established to aid coastal trade, since no lighthouse then stood on the 145 miles of coast between Point Pinos and Point Conception. The 1868 wreck of the Harlech Castle helped prompt its construction. A storm in 1949 destroyed the tower's lantern room and the original Fresnel lens, which is now displayed in Cambria. Even so, the tower retains elaborate Gothic brick and stone work, massive paneled doors and an interior cast iron stairway. The fog-signal building blends Romanesque Revival and Neo-Classical details, which is unusual for a utilitarian structure. A modern light still operates, and the grounds serve as a wildlife research station. The listed district counts three contributing resources and eight non-contributing ones.