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Evidently no reporters were around—and if photos were taken, they have yet to be found—when our decommissioned fourth-order Fresnel lens was taken down from the Point San Luis lighthouse tower on March 30, 1976. It was removed from the 40-foot tower’s octagonal lantern where it had been housed ever since 1890 when the light station first began operating.
Stew Jenkins, who was on the Port San Luis Harbor Commission at the time, tells this story of why the lens was removed:
It was a .22 caliber shot at the lighthouse tower that got the attention of the Port San Luis Harbor District. That, coupled with the plans of the Reagan administration to surplus and sell the 30-acre light station to a private bed and breakfast, triggered efforts by the five Harbor Commissioners to start negotiating with the federal government to have the light station transferred to the Harbor District to keep it in public hands as an eventual public park and historic site. I worked with my friend Leon Panetta and Dennis Johansen worked with his friend, then State Assemblyman William Marshall “Bill” Thomas.
Retired Chief Warrant Officer Bruce J. Spano was there when it happened, involved in both the careful planning for, and the actual removal of, the lens that day. Spano was tasked by his Coast Guard superiors to assist with the move, and to coordinate with Harbormaster Douglas Kendall “Ken” Jenkins along with fellow Coast Guardsmen Jerry Arnett, Joseph Baima, and Robert E. Stafford, and with at least two members of the harbor crew.
As Spano recounts it, the removal of the lens was not as difficult as one might imagine. The lens itself was boxed up in a specially designed crate after it was pushed horizontally through the small doors in the lantern room out onto the gallery deck. It was then crated with the precious lens upright, then hoisted up over the gallery railing and lowered to a flatbed truck provided by the harbor. Spano recalls:
The only planning involved was taking measurements of the lens, pedestal, and access. Then a boom to lower the lens needed to be considered as well as how to crate the lens. Mr. Jenkins made the port [Port San Luis] shop spaces available, and Mr. Collar and Mr. Lepley provided invaluable experience.
As I remember, the boom was a three-leg design anchored around the lantern’s gallery/catwalk space. I believe we used a “two-fold purchase” to lower the lens, with two men pulling on guidelines to keep it from hitting the tower on the way down.
Though I was in charge, so to speak, it truly was a team effort and I still look back at the task with fondness and admiration for all involved. It was just a great experience for me.
Spano recalls that pieces of foam rubber, something like mattress paddings, were used to cushion the lens as it passed through the tower access and was loaded on the truck, which then made its way to the county history museum in downtown San Luis Obispo which had enthusiastically agreed to take it. Louisiana Clayton Dart, museum curator at the time, would have been thrilled to have this valuable, historic piece to showcase as the jewel of the museum’s collection.
Later runs were made over the next week to move the rest of the apparatus to the museum—the pedestal, cable-and-weight system, timing mechanism and so forth. According to the museum’s records:
It was a feat to get the light into the museum. The light itself came swathed in masking tape to preserve it. The base of heavy metal demanded the strength of four men to carry it up the 20 steps into the museum building. And a tripod, made of three pieces of pipe 11 feet high, was suspended over the base and a “com-a-long” installed to lift the light up and seat it on its base. A steel cable, ¼-inch in circumference, but Herculean in strength, lifted the swathed light, which looked like a cocoon, and set it on its base. The hoist, which worked with a ratchet, worked slowly and beautifully and fulfilled its mission.
This was a laborious job, patiently and skillfully done by these men on April 7, 1976: Alan N. Collar of Pismo Beach, Henry C. Lepley Jr. of San Luis Obispo and four Coast Guardsmen—Joseph Baima, Jerry Arnett, Bruce Spano and Robert E. Stafford.
The lens was displayed at the history museum for 23 years. But in 1999, the history museum flooded. According to the History Center’s Executive Director Thomas Kessler:
From what I’ve heard it was horrific. Our downstairs is halfway underground, so it just filled up with water. Everything paper was ruined. Lots more was ruined besides. There was a long cleanup process, followed by the realization that as long as we were going to do repair work, we ought to take care of the fact that the whole place was unreinforced masonry, and make updates to come into compliance with the ADA. So the Board at the time did a major capital campaign, earthquake retrofitting took place, an elevator was installed, etc. The turnaround time was actually pretty quick, but it still took until 2001 to complete.
So the lens was moved again, this time to the San Luis Obispo City-County Library where it remained until 2010. Stew Jenkins recalls:
By the time the library needed it out, so they could remodel, the Lighthouse Keepers had succeeded in restoring the horn house, and were able to move it into what had been the horn house tool room where it could be safely displayed. By this time technology had moved forward so much that these kinds of lenses were less and less in use. As I recall, we could only locate three living certified Lampists potentially available to help us.
James “Woody” Woodward came out to inspect, and gave us a good bid, which we accepted. He provided the plans for the box and supervised the installation of the metal mount for the lens and its operating mechanism onto the specially designed and reinforced base built to keep the mounting level and stable and free from shaking during the movement of guests and earthquakes. He also supervised taking the lens out of its container at the library, requiring specific clothing and removal of all jewelry, rings, keys and anything else that might scratch the lens during handling. We all had to wear white cotton gloves. Once it was moved, in March 2010, he made some needed repairs and mounted the lens, educating volunteers on the methods of cleaning it.
The volunteers loved the lens. In fact, they perhaps loved it too much, cleaning it so often that we had one of the bull’s eyes pop out and fall on the floor when the special grout that holds the glass pieces into the brass fittings got too well cleaned.
By serendipity, we had just planned our grand opening fundraiser with an open-air trolley to bring the public out to enjoy the lighthouse. Every dollar of that successful fundraiser went into bringing Mr. Woodward back to go through the glass pieces one by one to replace the unique grout that holds them in place, which traditionally needed to be done every three to five years in working light stations. It had been well over 30 years since the lens had been so maintained.
In recent years, the task of cleaning the lens was mostly left to Barton Dennen, a long-time volunteer who had been carefully trained in the art of polishing the glass prisms and who cared for the lens like one would a precious jewel. But in early 2020, Dennen passed away. While he left behind instructions for the care of the lens (see box), no one felt up to the task.
As the lens is displayed inside a carefully controlled environment, and no longer has a kerosene flame, it’s not as if it had become dirty. But clearly the glass no longer sparkled.
Enter twin sisters Karen Scanlon and Kim Fahlen from San Diego.
For over fifteen years, Karen and Kim have been volunteering with San Diego’s Cabrillo National Monument, tending the third order Fresnel lens in the Old Point Loma lighthouse lantern along with the fifth order Fresnel lens from the Ballast Point light station. They learned how to clean the glass pieces that make up these lenses from the National Park Service, and now clean lenses all over the country and even internationally.
Armed with linen aprons to protect the glass from buttons and belt buckles; white cotton gloves; linen rags; spray bottles with a solution of rubbing alcohol, water, and a drop of detergent; and a small wooden tool somewhat like a tongue depressor, the sisters arrived at the light station on September 27, 2022, ready to work.
Karen and Kim also trained volunteer Steve Avelar on how to clean the lens in the future, and left behind gloves, linens, and their special cleaning solution to aid in the process.
After an hour or so of careful work by Karen, Kim, and Steve, the lens now shines (with apologies to Annie), “like the top of the Chrysler building.”
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