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Photo captions by Debra Baldwin
Editor’s note: In 1987, LeRoy White, eldest son of veteran lighthouse keeper Walter White, assembled a photo album with a few pages devoted to his time spent as a former U.S. Lighthouse Service employee in California. One page was captioned: “LeRoy White 1937 – 1938 That demon substitute lighthouse keeper” (opposite) and contained photos of LeRoy at Los Angeles Harbor Light and at the U.S. Lighthouse Service Depot on Terminal Island in San Pedro. Many of his other album photos, provided by multiple White family descendants, accompany this article. What follows is LeRoy’s account of his service, how the old Point Hueneme Lighthouse was constructed and observations of lighthouse life in general.
After I graduated from high school in 1929, I got my first job as assistant keeper at Point Hueneme substituting for the assistant keeper who went on vacation. From that point on, I worked on and off for the Engineering Department and as a substitute keeper at Ballast Point Light, Los Angeles Harbor Light (Irving D. Conklin was keeper then), San Luis Obispo Light and the Farallon Island Light.
I did some work for the contracts on Anacapa and also for the new dwelling at Hueneme when the harbor was put in in the 30s. The old light house was torn down (a twin to this light at Point Fermin. The house and tower are identical and both built the same year, 1874. They are gradually restoring the Point Fermin Light to its original condition.) So, I’ve spent 25 years of my life in and around lighthouses.
All of the time I remember the Light House Service was under the Department of Commerce until WWII broke out and the Coast Guard took over. I worked out of San Francisco under H.W. Rhodes, Superintendent, and received orders to go here or there via telephone, letter or telegram. It was a great life and I enjoyed it very much.
I think the station I enjoyed most was L.A. Harbor Breakwater Light. Conklin was one heck of a guy and a demon photographer. I lost all track of him after 1938.
In 1941, the original Point Hueneme Light Station was razed, except for the dwelling and tower, which was moved across the completed channel with the intention of turning it into a yacht club at a later date. It never materialized, and subsequently, the dwelling and tower were destroyed and the lumber sold.
I imagine that the person who helped tear the building down, found to his dismay, that it wasn’t that easy. Of course, I have no way of knowing how it was done, but while I was living there, I decided (with everybody’s OK) to cut an opening in the kitchen wall and install a folding table. I thought it would be an easy job, but it didn’t turn out that way.
In the first place, I found out that horsehair plaster was pretty tough stuff – and this was a good 1½ inch thick. Next came wood lath, then the random widths of 1.5” thick rough redwood, run at a 45-degree angle the opposite way. All in all, that wall was a good foot thick – and I had myself a time cutting out that opening, although it was just to the other side of the wall. I didn’t want to cut completely though, just to remove enough material to be able to fit the table in. As it turned out, I had room to spare.
The architects of the dwelling and tower were a pretty smart lot, as I found out at a later date. In 1874, when the station was constructed, a solid foundation was not used on the outer bearing walls or under the structure. In its place, brick piers, about 3-foot square spaced about 4 to 5 feet apart supported the building. So far as I know, and not having access to the original plans, the piers were resting on beach sand. Perhaps the people who moved the structure later would know about that.
After the Long Beach earthquake in 1933, the Lighthouse Department sent two engineers down to Hueneme from San Francisco to determine the damage done to the dwelling and especially the tower. After examining the building and tower and after taking various measurements, a report was turned into the district office in San Francisco that no damage was sustained to the structure, although the top of the tower was out of vertical plumb about ½ to ¾ inch overall. No recommendation was made for any type of correction to the tower.
Also, it was determined that due to the wall composition and also resting on a sand base, the building was practically quake-proof for that era. In fact, as long as I lived at the station, I never found any cracks or defects in the interior walls. Who knows how many quakes the old building had experienced in over half a century? Some, I imagine.
Now, a gripe. I strongly object to the words “wickie” or “lampie.” I’ve never heard it used except in some article I’ve read. Being around light stations and light house keepers for many years, not once was it ever used to my knowledge.
Before I end this, I want to say that life on a light station was no bargain. There were no modern-day conveniences. It was especially hard on the wives and mothers. My mother was a small woman, about 100 lbs. soaking wet. Her life was hard – all bread had to be made, no fresh meat except chicken, fish, mussels, rabbits, etc., or if you liked, salt pork or bacon, all vegetables grown. You had a cow if you wanted milk, made butter, washed clothes on a wash board, no electricity, no ice boxes, no entertainment except reading. It was just work, dawn till dark.
I know how the pioneer women must have felt. It was hard on the men also in how to provide for the family. Shoes to be soled and re-soled, a lot of shopping out of Sears Roebuck catalogs. Transportation was on your own feet if you wanted to go anywhere – but where? There were berries in season, cottontail rabbits, quail and a thousand and one rattlesnakes. It was not a romantic life – just a hard life.
This story appeared in the
Jul/Aug 2022 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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