It’s a new era for this old lighthouse

WESTPORT, Wash. – A 106-year-old beacon of light will begin a new era today.

The Grays Harbor lighthouse will be turned over to the Westport-South Beach Historical Society by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The society plans to restore the building, built in 1898, to its original design, with five windows along the tower staircase and a small Coast Guard office at its base.

Under the Coast Guard’s old arrangement, the 107-foot-tall lighthouse was licensed to the Westport Maritime Museum.

The Coast Guard has had authority to close off the area when it felt it could not secure the facility, said Laura Rust, who will manage the lighthouse for the historical society.

“We were trying to get more of a long-term solution,” she said. “For long periods of time, we couldn’t host tours or anything because of the Coast Guard’s concerns.”

This will be the first transfer of lighthouse ownership on the West Coast under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000.

“Grays Harbor lighthouse is a reminder of the past that must be preserved for future generations,” said U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., who plans to attend today’s festivities. “Every year, thousands of people visit the light to learn about its role in early shipping and trade in our region.”

Before the lighthouse preservation law was passed in 2000, congressional approval was required to transfer ownership of individual lighthouses, Baird said.

The historical society applied for ownership of the landmark in April 2003.

Rust said the Coast Guard has repainted the lighthouse and sealed leaky lens-room windows in preparation for the hand-over.

The society hopes to restore the structure over the next five years – an effort that is to include restoring the original lens light. In the early 1990s, the Coast Guard removed liquid mercury needed to make the lens work because it was deemed harmful to people, Rust said.

“We’ve had Coast Guard experts look at it, and they’ve told us it’s doable,” she said.

The lighthouse still functions as a beacon for sailors, using a more modern light affixed to a railing. If the old lens light is restored successfully, it would be used only for special occasions, Rust said.

The historical society also hopes to reconstruct the office building that stood at the base of the lighthouse and reinstall five windows in the tower.

“Going up the staircase, the alcoves for the window can still be seen,” Rust said.

To take over the lighthouse, the society had to prove it was an eligible nonprofit organization with a history of preserving artifacts, Rust said.

The society was founded in 1985 to convert the former Coast Guard station into a maritime museum. The group also preserves the Destruction Island lighthouse lens and constructed a building to house it.

The National Park Service, federal General Services Administration and the Coast Guard all had to approve the transfer, a process that took more than a year, Rust said.