If you've been to the lighthouse for a tour, you'll have noticed that there are French doors in the main room. You can see them in the old photo below.
You can also see that back in the day the room was the machinery room. The big machines are air compressors that fed the fog horns that protruded through the roof of the building. The French doors were used to move the heavy machinery in and out of the room as needed. After a while, fog signal technology moved on. The compressors and and fog horns were removed from the building and the room was repurposed. But the French doors remained.
Sometime after the station was completely automated, the doors were closed with a makeshift bar made from random lumber. For many years it did the job, keeping the doors closed against the winter storms. Very effective, but not exactly what's wanted for an historic structure.
Recently, one of our volunteers, Dave Ehnebuske, decided the broken-lumber door bar needed an upgrade. He started with a length of cedar 4x4 and chiseled notches to match the existing brackets.
The bar fits perfectly, is just as effective and looks a lot better!
Thanks, Dave!
With such a good-looking door bar, the sad state of of the room's paint job sticks out even more. US Lighthouse Society plans call for the room to be completely restored and repurposed as an interpretive center explaining the history of the lighthouse, but in the interim a new paint job sounds like a good project for our volunteers.
If you're interested in joining others in helping with the Point Wilson lighthouse, let us know. We'd love to meet you. Just fill out the volunteer form (click here), or drop by on Saturday or Sunday this summer and fall when the lighthouse is open for tours.