1 Yacht Road
Marina District
Once there was a grand plan to construct two of these stunning stone lighthouses at the harbor entrance in the Marina District.
The harbor itself was originally built as a lagoon for the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition of 1915.
The lighthouse was the idea of Captain B.P. Lamb of the Park Commission, who also suggested the general design of the tower. The design followed that of Roman military watchtowers built for the Punic Wars.
Captain Lamb was quoted as saying, “Yachtsmen have been forced to rely on shore lights in making the harbor at night.”
The city moved the harbor entrance in the 1960s, but left this lighthouse in its original position. Sadly this one has not been lit in years and can easily be missed on your walk to the San Francisco Yaht Club, or better yet, the Wave Organ.
According to San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department historian Christopher Pollock:
“This is not even a lighthouse by normal standards,” … “It’s squat, unmanned, and intended to be a beacon just for the yacht harbor, not necessarily to keep ships from crashing onshore.
“Think Alcatraz lighthouse or Point Bonita lighthouse,” he continues. “These are working lighthouses that are large, manned, and up high, to guide mariners in the fog.”
The park commission built the lighthouse in 1931 using cobblestones salvaged from the city streets as the seawall and paving around the structure, but the ornamental stones for the lighthouse walls came from the 35-room home of George A. Pope which once stood at Pacific and Divisidero and burned down on December 4th, 1929.
The lighthouse once had a teak door made from a ladder from the USS Matsonia, today that door is cemented shut, as are the windows.
It is possible that the lack of the second tower can be explained by an article found in the 1980 Civil History of the GGNRA Volume 2 Page 170: “In May 1931, construction of a twenty-five-foot high stone lighthouse on “the Saint Francis spit” to mark the entrance of the yacht harbor was completed, most likely under the same relief program sponsored by the city in cooperation with local business men. The depression, however, soon thereafter made it impossible for the city to finance further improvements at the Yacht Harbor
Apparently, there are stairs inside, but no grand spiral staircase as can be found in most lighthouses, and the light once held green and red colored glass.
According to the Park Commission, the 1,000-watt fixture was automated when it was first turned on, on October 22, 1931.
The lighthouse was seen briefly in the 1951 film noir, The House on Telegraph Hill.
The lighthouse in 1930