Point Retreat Light Station - Lighthouse, Juneau Alaska
- Categories:
- Alaska
- Lighthouse
Point Retreat Light Station is one of sixteen staffed navigational lights established by the U.S. Government in Alaska. Lighted on September 15th, 1904, it has been part of a system of navigational aids to safely guide commercial and recreational vessels through the dangerous and heavily traveled southeast Alaska waterway known as the Inside Passage. It is located a short distance north of the City of Juneau and is accessible only by water or air. The U.S. Lighthouse Service constructed the existing light tower and support buildings and structures in 1924. One of the first concrete lighthouses built in Alaska during the 1920s, often to replace older wood frame buildings, Point Retreat's architecture is influenced by the Art Moderne. Keepers sought assignment to Point Retreat because they could bring their families with them and because of the station's close proximity to the cities of Juneau and Douglas. In 1973, the U.S. Coast Guard automated Point Retreat Light Station and removed the remaining staff. The light continues to guide commercial and recreation vessels through Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage.
The discovery of rich gold deposits in upper Yukon River tributaries at the close of the nineteenth century prompted a huge increase in the number of ships navigating Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage, a safer route for ships to travel than the open unprotected ocean route to the west. In the late 1890s, watercraft of every description converged upon the Pacific Northwest ports to sail north. Once they passed British Columbia waters, there were few guides. Fog, rain, strong tides, and a rocky shoreline made the Inside Passage particularly difficult, especially for large steamers overloaded with prospectors and freight. Over three hundred accidents in Inside Passage waters were reported in 1898. Although Alaska's governors had been urging the U.S. Government to mark navigation hazards along Alaska's coasts for over a decade, only a few markers and buoys had been installed. In 1901, President William McKinley issued executive orders reserving land specifically for lighthouse purposes in Alaska.
One of the reserves was of 1,505 acres at the northern end of Admiralty Island known as Point Retreat, near the junction of Stephens Passage and Lynn Canal. The original lighthouse built at the site was a white hexagonal wood tower topped by a black hexagonal lantern. Beginning operation on September 15th, 1904, the site did not initially house a fog-signal as would many Alaskan light stations. Other site buildings included a one-and-one-half-story dwelling south of the light tower and a boathouse east of the dwelling. Before 1917, the station was not staffed and reduced to a minor light. A new acetylene light was established on site. Annual light reports from 1920-1923 indicate that the light was found extinguished at each visit.
The growth of the fishing and timber industries in Southeast Alaska in the early 1900s led to a sustained increase in maritime traffic in the area. The U.S. Lighthouse Service saw the need to once again upgrade the light at Point Retreat because it marked a hazardous, heavily traveled intersection. In 1924 the agency replaced the acetylene light with a reinforced concrete lighthouse and fog signal building and added new keepers' quarters, support buildings, a dock, and a tram at a cost of $58,242. The station was later improved with a radio beacon.
Keepers coveted assignment to Point Retreat because it was one of the few Alaska stations where their families could accompany them. In addition, the station was close to the cities of Juneau and Douglas. Charles E. McLeod served as keeper from 1926 to 1930.
With the transfer of lighthouse administration to the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939, lighthouse staffing changed from keepers with families to single men. An inspection report dated April 14th, 1944, indicates that there were ten men, including an Officer in Charge, on site and that the keepers' dwellings were in poor condition. In 1966, with improved technology and less need for permanent staff, the U.S. Coast Guard removed one of the keeper's quarters and installed a helicopter pad over the foundation of the house. The U.S. Coast Guard automated the station in 1973, discontinued the radio beacon, and removed the remaining staff. A light continues to operate at the station, flashing white every six seconds with a range of nine miles. The Alaska Lighthouse Association, a non-profit organization, leased the buildings in 1997 from the U.S. Coast Guard and became the owners in 2002.
Site Description
Point Retreat Light Station is located on the Mansfield Peninsula at the northern end of Admiralty Island near the junction of Lynn Canal and Stephens Passage, an important intersection for ships and boats travelling through the Inside Passage. The original lighthouse, a hexagonal wood tower topped by a hexagonal lantern, was built in 1904, and later replaced by an acetylene light atop a wood pedestal. The U.S. Lighthouse Service replaced this light with an Art Moderne-influenced reinforced concrete building in 1924. The new building occupies the site of the original lighthouse. Other buildings at the site include a boat house, an assistant keeper's quarters, and an oil house. These and the wood dock were built in 1923-1924. Also on site are a water tank and a platform for fuel drum storage. The lighthouse and associated buildings are situated more or less in a row along a north-south axis. Between 1924 and 1953, the period of significance, the light station also had a tramway and a keeper's house. The U.S. Coast Guard removed the keeper's house when it built the helicopter pad in the 1960s. At that time, it is believed the tramway was replaced with a concrete walkway. A communications tower stood between the oil house and the assistant keeper's house between the 1960s and 1980s.
Constructed in 1924, the combination light and fog signal building is an Art Moderne influenced concrete building characterized by recessed panels on all elevations which create multiple, uneven bays into which doors and windows are set. The building measures 34' x 20', sits on a concrete foundation, and is capped by a simple projecting cornice. An 8' x 8' square tower, also displaying recessed panels, rises eighteen feet from the center of the slightly sloped roof. In the 1950s an eight-foot high concrete block surmounted by a double-ended airways beacon, showing alternate flashing white and red, replaced the standard cupola/lantern room that housed a fourth-order lens. A simple metal railing now tops the tower. Today the light system is fully automated. Existing optics consist of a 300 mm lantern powered by a 35-watt solar panel and eight 100 AH batteries mounted where the cupola once was. A gallery with a simple metal rail wraps around the middle of the tower.
Centered on the facade of the building is a projecting entry vestibule with a five-panel door. The tower on this side has a 1/1 window below the gallery. The east elevation has a centrally located double door with two Single-light fixed windows above the doorway, and multi-light fixed sash windows on either side of the doorway. The tower on this elevation has a window below the gallery, a small paneled door that provides access to the gallery, and a ladder from the gallery to the top of the tower. The north elevation window openings have been covered with boards. The west elevation has three multi-light fixed windows across the elevation, the central window is approximately half the width of the two side windows. The building has a machine and equipment room. A one-thousand-gallon capacity water cistern is located beneath the building.
Oil house. Located 28 feet south of the lighthouse, this is a 25' x 12' unadorned concrete building with a modestly overhanging hipped roof. It has small fixed windows located slightly below the roofline centered on the east, north, and west elevations, and a large double door centered on the south elevation.
Assistant keeper's quarters. Located 150 feet south of the lighthouse, this is a one-and-a-half-story cottage-style wood frame building. It has a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, pantry, bathroom, and basement with a laundry room, water pump and treatment system, furnace, shop, and storage Space. It is 36' x 26', on a concrete foundation, and measures 29' to the peak of the gable roof. The building is wood shingled and the roof is asphalt shingled with projecting rafters and brackets.
The front of the house faces east and has a centrally placed partially enclosed shed-roofed porch approximately ten feet wide. The sloped porch roof is supported by four posts, two on each side. Five steps lead to a paneled door with 1/1 single-hung windows on both sides. Set into the foundation on the facade is a metal coal chute to the north of the porch and a three-light window to the south of the porch. The other sides of the building have similar windows set into the foundation. A bracketed dormer is centrally placed on the roof; it features a pair of 1/1 single-hung windows. The north elevation of the building has two 1/1 single-hung windows on the first story, and a pair of 1/1 single-hung windows in the gable. The west elevation has a pair of 1/1 single hung windows on the right side, a shorter 1/1 window in the center, and a 1/1 single-hung window on the left side. A dormer, similar to the one on the facade, is centrally placed on the roof. Centered on the south elevation is an enclosed projecting entry vestibule with shed roof. The door is accessed from the east by a flight of four steps. A fixed 9-light window is located on the south side of the vestibule. Storm cellar doors are located behind this side entrance. There are pairs of 1/1 windows on either side of the entry, those to the west of the entry are shorter than those to the east. A pair of 1/1 single-hung windows are set into the gable. A chimney rises from the center of the roof peak. An underground 12,900-gallon capacity water cistern is located southwest of the assistant keeper's quarters.
Located 32 feet southeast of the assistant keeper's quarters, the wood boathouse measures 36' x 18' and has an asphalt shingled slightly overhanging hipped roof with exposed rafters. The south, west, and north elevations have square 2/2 fixed windows, the north elevation has a door located at the west end, and the east elevation has two large doors that extend from the base to the roof line and open onto the dock.
The 64' x 48' dock is made of wood and is enclosed by a two-tiered wood railing. It sits on wood pilings set in concrete footings. The deck is approximately 45 feet above high water. There is a concrete pad and base for a boat hoist on the north side. The hoist house is no longer extant. On the south side of the dock, a set of stairs descends to a small boat landing area.
The 10,000-gallon water tank stands to the south of the helicopter pad. It is in a state of deterioration.
The wooden fuel storage platform is south of the helicopter pad and east of the water tank. The fuel tanks have been removed and gas drums are no longer stored on the platform.
In 1966 the southernmost of the two keeper's quarters was removed to make room for a helicopter pad. The pad is octagonal in shape and constructed of wood planks. The foundation of the keeper's quarters is visible under the pad.
The tramway extended north-south from the lighthouse to the fuel tanks with a spur to the dock. The only evidence of it is the route. Today a concrete sidewalk is where the track used to be.
Looking northeast at the light and fog signal station (2001)
Looking southwest at the light and fog signal station (2001)
Looking northeast at the light station on left, oil house, and keeper's quarters (2001)
Looking west at the keeper's quarters (2001)
Looking northeast at the oil house (2001)
Looking west at the boat house (2001)
Looking south at the boat house (2001)
Looking south at the dock (2001)
