Point Robinson Lighthouse

by Joan Carroll

Title

Point Robinson Lighthouse

Artist

Joan Carroll

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photograph

Description

Hop on a ferry from Seattle to Vashon Island and make the drive to Point Robinson Lighthouse! After the hustle and bustle of the 'mainland', Vashon Island is lovely break. And on a late spring day, very quiet and peaceful. From here you can see across the Puget Sound to Mt Rainier and you can watch the planes landing at Seattle airport. After I could turn away from the view of Mt Rainier visible from here, I could turn my attention to the Lighthouse. The current lighthouse, featuring an octagonal thirty-eight-foot tower was built in 1915 with a fifth order Fresnel lens. A third-class reed horn powered by compressed air was installed in the new lighthouse to replace the station's steam whistle. Point Robinson Lighthouse was a twin of the one built two years earlier at Alki Point and also features a lantern room with diagonal astragals. The new light was initially produced by an incandescent oil vapor lamp, but it and the fog signal were converted to electric power in 1918. Point Robinson Light was automated in 1978, and Joe Wubbold, a retired Coast Guard Captain and volunteer keeper at the lighthouse, helped persuade the Coast Guard to keep the original fifth-order Fresnel lens in place. The lens remained active in the lantern room until 2008 when, after more than ninety years of service, the Coast Guard replaced it with a plastic beacon, mounted outside the lantern room. In the early 1990s, local residents caught wind of a plan to lease land on Point Robinson to a seafood-processing plant. The citizens promptly joined together to form the Keepers of Point Robinson, and, coupled with the Vashon Parks Department, they were able to negotiate a fifteen-year lease on the property with the Coast Guard. Starting in July of 2003, one of the two keeper's dwellings was made available for weekly rentals, and the second dwelling has since been remodeled for the same purpose. That sounds like fun!

FEATURED PHOTO, T100 Qualitative SHARE SHARE Artists Group 1 a day group, 6/22/15

Uploaded

July 17th, 2014

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