Light Keeper's Cottage

Light Keeper's Cottage. . , The first lighthouse and this cottage were built during the summer of 1903 by the United States Lighthouse Service. The tender Heather delivered Oscar Brown and his wife Annie, along with their furniture which included an upright grand piano, a cow and a horse which were lowered by a sling to the beach. For 36 years Oscar and Annie tended the light and developed and nurtured a beautiful landscape that originally was a tideland and a lagoon., Oscar's primary job from 1903 until the early 1920s was lighting the lantern at sundown and extinguishing it at sunrise. During foggy periods he wound a large clock mechanism that kept the fog bell ringing. It was demanding and exhausting work. In 1922, his workload lessened when electricity came to Browns Point. A switch in the cottage turned on the beacon and an electric mechanism rang the bell., For 36 years, Oscar and Annie tended the lighthouse and the land., Every three years, Oscar painted the lighthouse, cottage and outbuildings white with the green and black trim of the U.S. Lighthouse Service. He and Annie were avid gardeners, growing vegetables for themselves and sweet clover and oats for his horse, goats and Jersey cow. His fruit orchard provided apples, pears and cherries. Oscar was an accomplished musician. When people began moving to the Point he became a music teacher for their young children., Oscar retired in 1939, when the United States Coast Guard assumed all lighthouse responsibilities. The light keepers who followed Oscar in order of service: Arthur J. Woods (1939-1944), Cyril Beaulieu (1944-1956), William Covington (1956-1957), Harold Nelms (1957-1960), and Robert Deason (1960-1963)., When the light was automated in 1963, Metro Parks Tacoma became the caretaker of the buildings and the grounds, renaming it Browns Point Lighthouse Park. In October 2000, Points NE Historical Society became a partner with Metro Parks, restoring and providing public access to the cottage and out buildings., [Photo captions, clockwise from top left, read] , . Oscar Brown, Lighthouse keeper for 36 years., . Annie Brown in front of Keeper's Cottage., . The Keeper's Cottage in the 1930s is surrounded by gardens and an orchard planted by Oscar and Annie Brown. A few apple trees still remain today., . Not only did Oscar keep Browns Point filled with light, their home was filled with music., . An iron Majestic woodstove with metal implements was used in the original cottage kitchen for both cooking and warmth.