The Point Fermin lighthouse in San Pedro has been restored carefully to its original form. (March 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre)
Before there was a Point Fermin Park in San Pedro, there was the Point Fermin lighthouse.
Point Fermin had been given its name by British explorer George Vancouver, after whom the British Columbian metropolis was named. Vancouver had met and been impressed by missionary Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen in 1792, and he decided to name the San Pedro point after him when he sailed to the area in 1793.
Portion of 1908 panoramic view looking south toward Point Fermin shows the lighthouse, right, and not a whole lot else. (Credit: San Pedro Bay Historical Society)
Harbor Area business titan Phineas Banning encouraged the development of the harbor at San Pedro as part of his plan to turn San Pedro into a major hub for his growing shipping business.
He implored the federal government to build a breakwater and begin dredging operations for the harbor, which they did in 1872.
Of course, one needs a way to direct ships to one’s budding port operation, so Banning also eventually convinced the federal government to build the Point Fermin lighthouse atop a barren sea cliff, something he had campaigned for since 1854.
The Point Fermin lighthouse, circa 1890. (Credit: Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection)
The lighthouse was designed by U.S. Lighthouse Board architect Paul Pelz in what was called the “Stick Style,” a less ornate, earlier style of Victorian architecture. Construction began in 1873, and It became operational on Dec. 15, 1874.
Despite its remote location, the lighthouse and the bluff became a popular place for visitors to enjoy a picnic while taking in the spectacular ocean vistas. The arrival of the San Pedro Red Car line in the early 1900s made the area even more accessible to the public.
Federal employees from the Treasury Department staffed the lighthouse, which was regulated by the U.S. Lighthouse Board. In 1925, the lighthouse was judged unnecessary by the federal government due to the construction of the newer and more powerful Point Vicente lighthouse.
In fact, it was recommended that the Point Fermin structure be demolished, which fortunately for lighthouse lovers, did not happen. Jurisdiction over the lighthouse passed to the city of Los Angeles once the feds gave up on it.
The city of Los Angeles operates Point Fermin Park in San Pedro. (March 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre)
A few months later, in April 1926, Charles T. Wilder’s gift of five additional acres surrounding the lighthouse to the city of L.A. allowed for the planning of a much more expansive official city park on the site.
The city bought up 17 additional smaller parcels nearby, and got to work on creating what parks commissioner Van M. Griffith expected would be “one of the most scenic and picturesque parks on the Pacific Coast,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
After the park opened, the parks commission also began obtaining all of the beach frontage property along the length of the park in 1929, assuring that no private development would occur there.
Also in 1929, a major landslide spelled the beginning of the end for the housing tract just east of Point Fermin Park, and led to the eventual geological deterioration that resulted in the abandoned Sunken City area.
1938 picture postcard shows the Point Fermin Cafe and snack bar. (Credit: Pomona Public Library)
The American Cetacean Society headquarters formerly was the Point Fermin Cafe. (March 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre)
The Point Fermin Cafe and adjoining snack bar opened not far from the lighthouse in the early 1930s. A 1917 photo exists of an earlier eatery, the Cliff Cafe, which seems to have vanished sometime during the 1920s.
The Point Fermin Cafe buildings still exist. They almost fell to the wrecking ball before being rescued in 1979 to become the headquarters of the American Caetacean Society.
Another nearby restaurant proved more enduring. In 1946, Bessie May Petersen and her husband, Ray Walker, took over the former Cuddles bar and transformed it into Walker’s Cafe, just across Paseo del Mar from the park itself. (The building originally had been the Red Car line’s turnaround station when built in 1913.)
1930s-era postcard, with hillside view of the Point Fermin lighthouse, center in distance. (Credit: CSUDH Archives and Special Collections)
The lighthouse went dark with the onset of World War II in December 1941 for security reasons. Its lights would never come on again. Following the blackout in early 1942, the military took over the facility for the duration of the war. The room atop the lighthouse was removed, and a lookout station for spotting enemy vessels was put in its place.
The lighthouse again came very close to being demolished, this time by the Coast Guard in 1972.
Activists Bill Olesen and John Olguin worked hard to save the structure. They succeeded in adding it to the National Register of Historic Places that year, and began a two-year remodeling and renovation program that restored the lighthouse to its original form in time for a centennial celebration in 1974.
A $2.6 million restoration in 2002 allowed the Point Fermin Lighthouse Society to begin offering public tours on Nov. 1, 2003, and they continue to offer them today.
Point Fermin Park itself now covers 37 acres, and its popularity only has grown over the years, fully living up to Commissioner Griffith’s 1926 expectations.
View from the palisades walkway at Point Fermin Park. (March 2019 photo by Sam Gnerre)
Sources:
Daily Breeze files.
Los Angeles Times files.
“Noirish Los Angeles,” Skyscraperpage.com forum, Aug. 23, 2013.
“Point Fermin Lighthouse,” Lighthouse Friends website.
“Point Fermin Lighthouse: Lighthouse History,” Point Fermin Lighthouse website.
San Pedro: A Pictorial History, by Henry Silka, San Pedro Bay Historical Society, 1984.
The Point Fermin lighthouse is bathed in the glow of the sunset in San Pedro on Friday, July 7, 2017. (Daily Breeze staff file photo)
