Point Arena Lighthouse
— — the tower the 1906 quake brought down.
Not only on a wall.
“A 115-foot concrete tower on the Mendocino coast of California, standing on a headland just north of where the San Andreas Fault comes ashore at Manchester Beach. The original brick lighthouse, lit in 1870, was destroyed by the 18 April 1906 earthquake — Point Arena was closer to the rupture than San Francisco. The current tower was completed in 1908 as the first steel-reinforced concrete lighthouse in the United States, engineered to withstand the next quake. The first-order Fresnel lens that lit the new tower is now on display in the museum at the base. The light was automated in 1977, and the keepers' cottages have since been let as overnight lodging.
Point Arena Lighthouse, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Point Arena Lighthouse stands on a small headland at the western tip of Mendocino County, California, about 130 road miles north of San Francisco and forty miles south of Mendocino village. The point is one of the westernmost on the California coast and the closest point of the United States mainland to the Hawaiian Islands. The grounds and tower are managed by the Point Arena Lighthouse Keepers, a nonprofit holding a long-term lease from the U.S. Coast Guard. The Bureau of Land Management's Stornetta Public Lands extend the open coast immediately north as part of the California Coastal National Monument.
The first Point Arena light was lit in 1870, a brick tower 100 feet tall above the Pacific. The 18 April 1906 earthquake brought it down: the San Andreas Fault comes ashore at Manchester Beach about six miles south, putting Point Arena closer to the rupture than San Francisco. The current tower was completed in 1908 as the first steel-reinforced concrete lighthouse in the United States, engineered to withstand the next quake. It stands 115 feet from base to lantern, tied with Pigeon Point Light as the tallest on the U.S. West Coast. The first-order Fresnel lens, manufactured in Paris and shipped around Cape Horn, is now on display in the museum at the base.
The grounds, museum, and tower are open daily, generally from late morning to mid-afternoon. Visitors can climb the 145-step spiral stair to the gallery deck below the lantern room; the lens room above is closed. The museum at the base of the tower houses the first-order Fresnel lens that lit the 1908 lighthouse from its first night until automation in 1977. Four former keepers' cottages and the assistant keeper's house are rented as overnight lodging on the grounds, with grey whales offshore in winter and harbour seals on the rocks below the cliff. The site is operated by the Point Arena Lighthouse Keepers nonprofit.