Photograph as originally submitted to this page in the Historical Marker Database www.HMdb.org. Click on photo to resize in browser. Scroll down to see metadata.

Photographer: Allen C. Browne
Taken: May 30, 2015
Caption: Lantern of The Old Ballast Point Lighthouse
Additional Description: “The whereabouts of the Ballast Point lantern room was a mystery to almost everyone until it was placed on display outside West Sea Company, a nautical antiques store in San Diego’s Old Town. In early 1998, Rod Cardoza, co-owner of West Sea Company, noticed a classified ad in the local paper that read, “HISTORICAL Lighthouse, Dallas [sic] Point, 1880’s, minimum bid $15,000.” Intrigued, he called the number on the ad and shortly thereafter traveled to Bonita to view what turned out to be the lantern room from Ballast Point Lighthouse at the home of Homer Hudson. Cardoza hired a crane to have the lantern room lifted over nearby power lines and placed on a flat-bed truck. After being delivered to his store, the lantern room was placed on a cement pad, where, fitted with new glass panes and covered in a fresh coat of paint, it can be viewed today.

The nation was just recovering from the Cuban Missile Crisis, when, in February 1964, the Cuban government cut off the fresh water supply to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay. An experimental desalinization plant had been in operation at Point Loma for just over two years, and the Navy ordered it dismantled and shipped through the Panama Canal to Guantanamo Bay. Homer Hudson, who sold the lantern room to Cardoza, was working as a crane operator as part of the team disassembling the desalinization plant when he noticed the interesting artifact lying nearby. He inquired if he could purchase the lantern room and was told that he could have it if he would haul it away. Soon the lantern was serving as a gazebo in Hudson’s garden, and there it remained for thirty-four years.“ — Lighthouse Friends.
Submitted: June 19, 2015, by Allen C. Browne of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Database Locator Identification Number: p311785
File Size: 2.178 Megabytes

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