Sentinel Island Light Station, Juneau Alaska
- Categories:
- Alaska
- Lighthouse
Sentinel Island Light Station is a guide on an important water passage for Alaskan transportation and commerce. Sentinel Island and Five Finger light stations along Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage started operating on March 1st, 1902. They were the first American lighthouses built in Alaska. Sentinel Island Light Station stands at the entrance to Lynn Canal, a heavily used marine transportation corridor from near the city of Juneau north to the cities of Haines and Skagway. The U.S. Lighthouse Bureau added a concrete Art Deco style lighthouse building to the site in 1935 that is an excellent example in Alaska of the popular architectural style. Sentinel Island Light Station continues to guide recreational and commercial vehicles through the Inside Passage today.
The discovery of rich gold deposits in the upper Yukon River area at the close of the nineteenth century prompted a massive rise in the number of ships navigating Lynn Canal. The canal was part of the Inside Passage, a safer route for ships to travel than the open ocean route to the west through the eastern Gulf of Alaska. 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 through the Inside Passage. Fog, rain, strong tides, and a rocky shoreline made this 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 install navigation aids along Alaska's coasts for over a decade, only a few markers and buoys had been installed. In a report to Congress dated October 13th, 1900, the inspector and engineer for the Thirteenth Lighthouse District, headquartered in the Pacific Northwest, gave Sentinel Island highest priority. Congress appropriated funds for two lighthouses in Alaska, one at Sentinel Island, that year. George James, a Juneau resident, received the contract and began construction of the Sentinel Island station in 1901. Construction costs were $21,267. Sentinel Island Light Station started operating on March 1st, 1902, sharing the honor with Five Finger Light Station south of Juneau, as one of the first two American-built lighthouses operating in Alaska. In the next three years, seven other lights would be established along the inside passage.
The original Sentinel Island lighthouse was a wooden, square, duplex keeper's residence with hipped cross gables and an integral light tower. A steel and glass lantern on top of the tower housed a fourth-order Fresnel lens. During the 1930s, the U.S. Lighthouse Bureau replaced many of the wooden lighthouses in Alaska with concrete buildings of the Art Deco architectural style; in 1935, Sentinel was one of these lights. The Sentinel Island light and fog signal house's rectilinear massing, flat roof, central tower, stepped elevation plains, one-over-one double hung sash windows and vertical fretwork distinguish it as Art Deco. Its total cost was $35,310. The original lantern was moved to the new tower and the building continued to serve as the keeper's residence until the light was unmanned and automated in 1966 due to inflation and technological advances. In 1971, the U.S. Coast Guard demolished the deteriorated original residence by burning it in accordance with recommended fire procedures issued by the Coast Guard.
On October 24th, 1918, a particularly vicious storm hit Southeast Alaska. A fully loaded Canadian Pacific steamship, the Princess Sophia, left Skagway at 10:10 p.m. At 2:10 a.m. the unthinkable happened when the ship ran onto Vanderbilt Reef at cruising speed. A fleet of rescue vessels from Juneau rushed to the site. The Princess Sophia's captain did not think his ship was damaged badly enough to warrant the risky evacuation of passengers as the storm worsened. The boats sent to the rescue had to retreat to shelter, which some found by way of the light from Sentinel Island Light Station. The following morning, the rescue boats returned to Vanderbilt Reef and saw only a twenty-foot section of the Princess Sophia's mast visible above the water. None of the 353 passengers and crew members survived.
Site Description
In 1900, the U.S. Government reserved 6.55 acres for a lighthouse on the northeastern half of Sentinel Island. The island is toward the north end of Favorite Channel south of the mouth of Lynn Canal and about twenty-five miles north of Juneau, Alaska. Sentinel Island Light Station includes five buildings, four sites, and two structures. The buildings date from two periods: the initial construction in 1901, and 1935 when Depression-era programs funded improvements at a number of Alaska's light stations. The light is still active, although automated in 1966, and now powered by solar-charged batteries installed in 1987. The last keepers left in 1966. The standing buildings and structures have been reasonably maintained.
The oldest buildings include the Hoist Houses #1 and #2, Blacksmith Shop, and Boat House. These wood buildings have exposed rafter ends, gable roofs, and very simple detailing. Built in the 1930s, the lighthouse is an excellent example of Art Deco architecture. The foundations of the original lighthouse/keeper's residence, workshop/bunkhouse, water cistern, and oil house remain. There is also evidence of the 1902 tramway connecting the dock and the main buildings.
The original light station had a square, double, two-story keepers dwelling with hipped cross gables and a fog signal house. The fog signal house was 60 feet west of the oil house and equipped with a third-class Daboll trumpet. The station was illuminated with a fourth-order, fixed-white light, 82 feet above mean high water, or about 42 feet above land. The candlepower of the light was increased from 600 to 1,600 in 1926. It was again increased in 1929 by changing the illuminant from acetylene to electricity. In 1935, a new two-story Art Deco style light and fog signal building was built measuring 28 by 34 feet. An 11 by 11-foot square tower rises 25 feet above the roof from the center of the Northeast elevation. The building is constructed of reinforced concrete and it has a full basement. The original 13-foot lantern housing a flashing white light with a 17-mile range is on top of the tower. A project to automate the light and change the optic to a Crouse Hinds DCB-10 rotating lantern was approved in 1962, and the change happened in 1966. In 1983 or so, the light was changed to a rotating 190 mm lantern, and then, in June of 1987, the crew of the buoy tender Woodrush installed fifteen solar panels on the roof of the building to reduce the need for generators and to cut maintenance costs. Hence, solar-charged batteries now power the light. In 1996, the lantern was changed to a more modern VRB-25. In 1944, the fog signal was reported as a "fog signal, diaphone, air, on for 5 seconds, off for 25." The fog signal kept that characteristic, on 5 sec out of every 30, until it was discontinued in 1996. The light tower has windows near the top of three of its elevations. A walkway with a metal handrail surrounds the glass and cast iron lantern on top of the tower. Pilasters decorate the sides of the building and the corners of its tower. The building is generally in good condition. Some original windows have been replaced with Plexiglas, and others were filled in during the 1960s.
Built in 1901, Hoist House #1 is a small 7.5 by 7.5 foot shed roofed wood frame building. It has board and batten vertical siding. The building housed the mechanical equipment to pull a wheeled cart along the tramline. Generally in good condition, the wood timber foundation is rotted in some places.
Built in the 1930s, the Blacksmith Shop is an 8 by 12 foot gable roofed wood frame building with corrugated metal siding and roofing. It has a concrete foundation. The original door has been replaced and the windows have been covered with Plexiglas.
Built in 1901, the boathouse is a 15 by 28 foot gable roofed wood frame building with vertical board and batten wood siding. The original double-hinged door remains. A window frame on the wall opposite the door is deteriorated. Most of the wood shingles are gone. The building is in poor condition.
Built in 1901, Hoist House #2 stands next to the boathouse. It is a 12 by 16 foot hip roofed wood frame building sided with wood shingles. The windows are in poor condition, and most of the wood shingles on the roof are gone. The building is in poor condition.
Built in 1901, the wooden dock is 50 by 60 feet and 20 feet high. A wood bridge connects it and the land. The dock has some rotted piling and beams.
The red brick and cement block foundation of the original lighthouse/keeper's quarters measures 45 by 60 feet and includes two water cisterns. In 1971, several years after the station was automated and keepers removed, the U.S. Coast Guard removed the deteriorated building by burning it.
Workshop/bunkhouse foundation. This reinforced concrete foundation dates from the 1930s and measures 12 by 20 feet.
The reinforced concrete water cistern foundation measures 12 by 12 feet. It was installed as part of the original station.
The reinforced concrete foundation of the Oil house building constructed in the 1930s that no longer stands measures 8 by 8 feet.
Constructed in 1901, the 360 feet tramway connected the dock and the lighthouse. It is constructed of steel rails and wood ties.
Looking northeast at the 1935 light tower building (1998)
Looking west at the dock, boat house, and hoist house #2 (1998)
Looking southwest at blacksmith shop (1998)
Looking southwest at the light station; the keeper's quarters next to the light tower was demolished in (1971)
