Foundation Concrete Height 14 m Automated 1976 Added to NRHP 24 March 1971 | Markings / pattern White with red roof Focal height 16 m Construction Concrete | |
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Location Western entrance to Admiralty Inlet, Port Townsend, Washington Year first constructed 1879 (first); 1914 (second) Year first lit 1879 (first); 1914 (second) Tower shape Octagonal on fog signal building Address Harbor Defense Way, Port Townsend, WA 98368, USA Similar Fort Worden, Admiralty Inlet, Admiralty Head Light, New Dungeness Light, Marrowstone Point Light | ||
Point wilson light
The Point Wilson Light is an active aid to navigation located in Fort Worden State Park near Port Townsend, Jefferson County, Washington. It is one of the most important navigational aids in the state, overlooking the entrance to Admiralty Inlet, the waterway connecting the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound. The lighthouse was listed on the Washington State Heritage Register and the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
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History
Point Wilson's first lighthouse was built in 1879 by the United States Lighthouse Service as a companion to the Admiralty Head Light built some 18 years earlier on the eastern side of Admiralty Inlet. A square wooden tower projecting from the roof of a two-story, Cape Cod–style keeper’s quarters held a fixed fourth-order Fresnel lens. The station also included a fog signal building with 12-inch, steam-powered fog whistle.
In 1904, landfill was added to the site in an effort to protect the station, but time and tide having worked their destructive effects, a new lightthouse was commissioned. Completed in 1914, it was built of reinforced concrete with a 46-foot (14 m) octagonal tower designed to withstand the wind. It received the station's original fourth-order Fresnel lens that it continues to display. The beacon's height of 51 feet (16 m) made it the tallest light on Puget Sound. The tower on the original lighthouse was removed and the building continued in use as residence for the keepers. The station was automated in 1976.
Point Wilson Light remains in the hands of the U.S. Coast Guard, while the grounds are managed by Washington State Parks. Its site on the exposed point at Fort Worden State Park is under serious threat from shoreline erosion and rising sea levels.