New Dungeness Light Station, Sequim Washington

Date added: September 12, 2024

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Washington
Lighthouse

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The New Dungeness Light Station was the first federal navigational aid constructed north of the Columbia River. Lighted in December, 1857 (just a few weeks before the light on Tatoosh Island), the Station consists of the original lighthouse with tower and a nearby keepers' residence built in 1904. The Light Station is situated at the tip of Dungeness Spit in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and has served for nearly 140 years as a maritime beacon in an area plagued by strong storms, dense fog, and heavy commercial traffic. Although the tower was lowered in the early 20^th century, the station remains an enduring symbol of the historic lighthouses of Washington.

When Congress passed the Lighthouse Act of 1789, the federal government assumed responsibility for constructing and operating navigational aids in the United States. Since then, more than 1,000 lighthouses have been built along with hundreds of fog signals and lightships. In 1852, Congress created a special Lighthouse Board, composed of scientists and military officials, to administer the navigational aids program. The Board gave way to the Bureau of Lighthouses in 1910 and in 1939 the bureau and its employees in the United States Lighthouse Service were amalgamated with other agencies with maritime responsibilities to become the United States Coast Guard. The Coast Guard has had responsibility for navigational aids since that time.

By the early 1850s, Congress had authorized the construction of 16 West Coast lighthouses, including five in today's Washington State. The first completed lighthouse on the Pacific Coast was at Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, lighted on June 1^st, 1854. Three years later, the first lighthouse built north of the Columbia River was lighted on the New Dungeness Spit on December 14^th, 1857.

The Dungeness Spit is a narrow five and one-half mile, low-lying stretch of sand, drift logs, and beach grass that reaches into the Strait of Juan de Fuca (an international boundary between Washington and British Columbia). First identified as Point Santa Cruz by Spanish explorers in 1790, the landform and surrounding bay was named "New Dungeness" in 1792 by British Captain George Vancouver, after Dungeness Point on the English Channel.

Because of the deceptively low profile of the spit, and its unusual length, the site was the scene of many shipwrecks, and a logical location for a light. The Coastal Survey of 1852 went so far as to recommend planting trees to alert navigators. In September 1850, Congress passed an enabling act providing for a New Dungeness lighthouse (as well as one at Tatoosh Island at the entrance to the Strait). In August, 1854, Congress reserved sites and appropriated $39,000 for construction of both stations.

Construction of the lighthouses began in 1856 under the supervision of Isaac Smith. Work on the New Dungeness light was undertaken by a crew that included John Tibbals and mason Konrad Schneider. Federal officials were concerned about the remote location, inclement weather, and potential Indian hostilities, and encouraged Smith to seek a timely completion. To spur his crews, Smith initiated a friendly rivalry, challenging each to finish first. The race ended on December 14^th, 1857 when the New Dungeness beacon was lighted two weeks before the Tatoosh Island light, thus becoming the first lighthouse on the Strait and the first American light north of the Columbia River.

The new lighthouse, patterned after prototypical designs of Treasury architect Ammi B. Young, consisted of a tapering tower that rose 89 feet from the center of a gable-roofed keeper's house. Smith acquired huge blocks of sandstone from the Bellingham area for the house and brick for the tower, which was painted white on its lower half and a dark color on the upper section. The original oil lamp shown through a fixed lens of the third order of Fresnel.

Franklin Tucker and John Tibbals of Port Townsend were named temporary keepers until February, 1858, when Captain Thomas Boyling and Captain William Henry Blake arrived to assume permanent command. By March, Blake was appointed sole keeper-in-charge, a position he held until 1868. Blake was replaced by Jacob J. Rogers, who retained the post until 1871, when he was replaced by Charles Blake. Franklin Tucker (the temporary keeper in 1857-58) replaced Blake in 1873 and remained in charge from April of that year until December, 1882, when he was transferred to Ediz Hook Light Station and replaced by Amos Morgan. Morgan served until March, 1896, and in the late 1890s Oscar Brown and Joseph Dunn served as station keepers.

The lightkeeper's life in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries was occupied with extensive maintenance and regulated by timely operations. Polishing brass, bronze, and glass was a daily chore, especially in the early years when the oil lamps tended to smut up the Fresnel lens. The keeper fed the lamp with oil every day. (A kerosene lamp replaced the oil lamp which in turn was replaced by a mineral oil lamp in the 1880s.) In addition, the station featured a 1,100 pound fog bell (housed on a platform near the lighthouse) which required the keeper to wind the weights every few hours, day and night. Occasionally, the bell striker became inoperative, requiring hand-ringing around the clock. (In 1873 Congress appropriated money for a 12" steam whistle, operated by two large boilers. Later an air whistle was installed, replaced by a compressed air siren in 1907, which in turn was replaced in 1937 by diaphones.) In the early years, the keeper would row to Victoria for supplies.

Despite the presence of light and horn, the heavy fogs of the Strait and the deceptively low-lying profile of the Spit lead to many wrecks, earning the landform the ominous sobriquet "Shipwreck Spit." The first recorded wreck of consequence was that of the schooner John Stevens, which straddled the spit in 1858 just after the lighthouse was commissioned. Other prominent wrecks in the 19^th century included the schooner Kosuth (1862), the bark Fremont (1866), the bark George Washington (1867), the bark Iconium (1867), the bark Ocean (1868), the bark Chrisptopher Mitchell (1874), the ship Washington Libby (1874), the Chilean barks Savona (1890) and Eritrea (1893), and the ship R. K. Ham (1894). In 1914, the Mosquito Fleet steamer Sioux was grounded on the Spit but later freed. Obviously, however, the presence of the lighthouse provided significant assistance in an area that continued to pose maritime hazards. (While often hazardous to vessels, the Spit was home for thousands of migrating seabirds. In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed an Executive Order establishing a wildlife refuge on the Dungeness Spit, thus insuring that the Light Station would remain the only man-made feature on the long sandy stretch. Today, the refuge encompasses over 550 acres.)

By 1895, four men were working at the station, and funds were requested for construction of a new, freestanding residence. The new quarters was built in 1904 at the cost of $45,000. In 1927, the station underwent another major transformation when the original tower was lowered by 26 feet. The unusual action was taken because the district's chief lighthouse engineer, Clarence Sherman, noted structural instabilities. Sherman supervised the reconstruction, knocking off the taller courses of brick. When the tower was shortened to a height of 63 feet, a new gallery, iron deck, and iron railing were installed atop the lowered tower. A new lamp and lantern house were also required, so Sherman removed the light from the abandoned Admiralty Head Lighthouse on Whidbey and installed the fourth-order Barbier and Benard Prism Lens, which functioned as the prism lens for distant light generation until 1976. The quartz-iodide bulb came on and went off automatically according to light intensity.

In 1976, the lighthouse was fully automated with the installation of an electronic beacon and an automated fog horn. Thereafter, fewer staff were needed, and today a single keeper and spouse attend to the duties of the New Dungeness Light Station.

Site Description

Located about one-sixth mile from the tip of the Dungeness Spit in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the New Dungeness Light Station is a compound that includes an 1857 lighthouse with tower, a 1904 keepers' quarters, and several auxiliary structures. The New Dungeness light was the first federal navigational aid constructed north of the Columbia River. Although the tower was lowered in 1927 to its present height, and the station automated in 1976, the complex still reflects both the original construction and the evolution of the station.

The New Dungeness Light Station is the only man-made feature on the spit, which since the early 20^th century has been a federal wildlife sanctuary (and off-limits to construction). The isolation of the light is further emphasized by frequent storms and fog, and on rare occasions (first recorded in 1871) the north end of the spit (on which the lighthouse stands) has been temporarily severed from the base of the spit by rising waters.

The Dungeness Spit is a narrow, five-and-one-half-mile-long finger of low-lying land that gently curves to the northeast as it stretches into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The landform is relatively barren, characterized by sand, rocks, logs, and beach grasses, and supports no trees (despite a 1852 Coast Survey Team recommendation that trees be planted to help alert navigators). The western shore is lapped by the open waters of the Strait, while the inner eastern shore shelters the gentler waters of New Dungeness Bay and Harbor. About halfway to the tip, a secondary spit, Graveyard Spit, projects form the main spit into the hay.

The primary feature of the station is the original lighthouse. Constructed of large sandstone blocks and brick in 1857, the lighthouse is a one-and-one-half-story rectangular stone building with a 63-foot brick tower rising from the center of the house. At its crest, the tower is 67 feet above sea level. The lighthouse is composed of a side-gabled main block, measuring 40 feet across the facade by 28 feet 3 inches along the side elevations, with a perpendicular gabled wing, measuring five feet 10 inches by 24 feet, projecting off the rear. A one-story rear annex provides restroom facilities. (The perpendicular wing and annex were constructed sometime after the original construction but before 1904.)

The foundation, raised basement, and house are constructed of large sandstone blocks, measuring about two feet square, shipped from a Bellingham quarry and faced in stucco. The upper walls of the tower are brick, covered with a stucco veneer. The gable roofs are faced with wood shingles.

The north facade of the lighthouse is symmetrical, with a central entry flanked by two first-floor windows on each side. The entry, which is spanned by a large sandstone lintel, features a recessed single-leaf door beneath a glazed transom and framed by sidelights. The windows on the facade are also surmounted by flat sandstone lintels and rest on stone sills. Each window features a double-hung wood sash, with two horizontal lights in each sash. The side gable-end elevations are lighted by a single window on the first floor and two windows on the second floor. As on the facade, the windows have stone lintels and sills with double hung sash. A drip molding surrounds the structure above the concrete basement. The eaves of the gable roof are boxed with a projecting cornice molding.

Two brick chimneys rise above the roof ridge on either side of the central tower. The one-and-one-half-story rear gabled wing projects from the south elevation and is lighted by wood frame windows with stone lintels and sills. The one-story rear annex features several windows and a door on either side.

The tapering brick tower rises through the center of the gabled roof. At its foundation inside the house, the tower has a diameter of 17 feet 3 inches and is constructed of sandstone. The shaft is built of double brick walls, an inner wall that rises on a straight vertical plane to the lantern, and an exterior wall that tapers as it rises until it nearly converges with the inner wall at the crest. The tower is punctuated by several small wood frame windows placed at the landings, and is surmounted by an octagonal iron deck, surrounded by an iron railing, and capped by a circular metal-framed glazed lantern housing the light. The diamond-shaped panes of the lantern followed the curvature of the tower. The original lantern housed a third-order Fresnel lens, which was replaced (when the tower was lowered in 1927) with a Barbier and Benard lens (built in 1897 and earlier installed at Admiralty Point Lighthouse). The rotating lens was removed in 1976 during automation. A conical roof with a large finial ball caps the tower.

The present tower is 27 feet shorter than it was originally. It was lowered in 1927 because of structural instability. The tower was shortened by removing the upper courses of bricks and placing a new light housing on top of the shortened tower. Otherwise, the tower is all original material.

The interior of the lighthouse is arranged on a bilateral, symmetrical plan. The entry hall leads to the spiral stairs which ascend the central tower. To either side of the hall, single-leaf doors lead to the original keeper's residence rooms with double-hung wood sash windows. The rooms at the rear feature curved inner walls which conform to the base of the tower. A rear stairway leads to the second-story bedrooms, and the kitchen is located in the rear wing. The tower is accessed through spiral wooden stairs with iron railing, which ascends to the lantern.

In 1904, a wood frame keepers' quarters was constructed to the west of the Lighthouse to accommodate the personnel stationed at the light. The frame structure is a one-and-one-half-story rectangular structure with a side gable roof and restrained Neoclassical ornament. The house rests on a concrete foundation and raised basement; the upper walls are sheathed in drop siding and the roof is covered with asphalt shingles. The walls of the house are framed by a projecting drip molding above the raised basement, corner boards, and an architrave molding beneath a projecting cornice molding which supports the boxed eaves of the roof. The side elevations are trimmed with molded cornice returns on the side elevations.

The composition of the house is based on bilateral symmetry with a central entry flanked by wood frame windows. The windows are double-hung wood sash units with two-over-two lights and are framed by molded hoods and projecting sills. The central entry is sheltered by a large porch which is the most dramatic element of the facade. The flat roof of the porch is treated as a classical entablature, with a plain frieze, dentil course, and cornice. The entablature is supported by paired Tuscan columns which rest on plinths. Decorative pilasters are placed against the wall on either side of the entry and a railing runs between the columns. The doorway itself is a single-leaf unit flanked by glazed sidelights. The porch is accessed by a flight of six steps. Above the porch, a gabled dormer window projects from the front slope of the roof. The dormer is lighted by paired multi-light windows, with a decorative sunburst in the tympanum.

The classical motif is continued on the side elevations, which are lighted in the gable ends by tripartite Palladian windows composed of a central round arch light flanked by double-hung sidelights. Elsewhere windows are wood frame double-hung sash with two-over-two lights, trimmed by hood moldings and sills. An enclosed rear porch is glazed with ribbon windows.

The interior plan of the house features a central hall with a staircase with turned banisters and a square newel. Rooms are located to either side of the central stairs and feature simple baseboard trim. Two rear rooms (a bedroom and a kitchen) are located on the first floor. Two bedrooms are located upstairs on either side of the central hall. The bedrooms are accessed through paneled doors.

Elsewhere on the grounds are utilitarian structures that date from the 20^th century, including a square concrete transformer house, a frame gable roof garage and workshop; a frame paint shed, oi1 house with corrugated tin siding; and the concrete foundations of the original fog signal building. An office building and boat house once located at the complex no longer stand.