Age taking toll on historic Oregon lighthouse

FLORENCE, Ore. — One of the nation's most photographed lighthouses is leaking so bad it's crumbling away.

The 115-year-old Heceta Head lighthouse may have to be closed to visitors if it is not repaired soon.

"It's pretty dire," said Dennis Davidson, assistant area manager for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

Historic standards

But the estimated cost of repairs is $1.45 million, partly because the lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which means the work has to conform to certain standards.

"It's not like you can just go out and buy this stuff," Davidson said. "We have a real challenge."

The parks department has come up with nearly $300,000 in matching funds, and it hopes to raise the rest with a transportation-enhancement grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation.

Officials say the lighthouse is subjected to brutal storms that batter the Oregon coast. And it has had water problems since at least 2001, when the Coast Guard formally awarded it to the state.

Algae creeps down the brick facade in the service room, the catwalk outside is no longer safe and the number of people allowed to climb up the spiral staircase of the 56-foot tower to get a look at the lovely Fresnel lens in its lantern has been reduced.

The interior stucco is cracking. There's rust on the horizontal support beams that hold up the lantern, as well as on the staircase and on the point at which the staircase connects to the walls.

The posts that hold up the railing of the widow's walk around the outside have corroded to the point that they could easily break off if someone were to put their full weight against them, meaning it's unsafe to maintain the windows without using a lift truck.

The stone corbel near the top, which the Coast Guard lined with chicken wire and sprayed over with a quick-drying concrete, is threatening to crumble and fall to the base of the tower.

Lack of money

For years, the state has been fixing leaky windows and running dehumidifiers to battle moisture, but it has lacked the money necessary to seal the lighthouse tight again.

Davidson said new thermal-imaging scans suggest those patches aren't holding.

Most of the water is coming in from the roof, pooling up between the roof and the liner inside it. The wood-sash windows are nearly as porous as Swiss cheese, and the bricks by the horizontal beams at the top need replacing.

"It's getting to the point where we can't put a Band-Aid on it anymore," said Debra Edwards, a park ranger at Carl G. Washburne Memorial State Park.